Around 134 million acres, or 79 percent of the state total of 170 million acres, is feral hog habitat. (Texas AgriLife Extension Service graphic courtesy of the Texas A&M University Institute for Renewable Natural Resources)
Dr. Roel Lopez, associate director of the Texas A&M University Institute for Renewable Natural Resources, and Dr. Billy Higginbotham, AgriLife Extension wildlife specialist recently completed a study on the actual population numbers of feral hogs in Texas. They concluded that there are actually somewhere between 1.9 and 3.4 million hogs across Texas. Dr.Lopez and Dr. Higginbotham also shed light on several other myths about feral hogs. These myths discuss the topics of population growth, control strategies, and identification by color markings alone. Want a more in depth account of this study? There is an article on Texas A&M's AgriLife Today website with more details about these myths and their answers.