Texas holds the largest feral hog population of any US state, an estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million animals causing hundreds of millions of dollars in crop and land damage each year, and NatureServe classifies the species as exotic here rather than assigning it a conservation rank. The more than 7,400 records logged cluster around the marshes and brush of Aransas and Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuges and the coastal corridor near Padre Island, prime rooting ground for an animal that eats almost anything it can dig up.
Records peak in April and stay elevated through fall, dipping only modestly in summer heat, a pattern that reflects both genuine year-round activity and the active control and monitoring programs that many landowners and agencies run against a species considered a serious ecological and economic threat rather than wildlife to protect.
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