Comparing landowner support for wild hog management options in Tennessee.

Wild hogs (Sus scrofa) are an invasive, non-native species quickly gaining ground on private, as well as public, lands in Tennessee and much of the United States. Wildlife management personnel may benefit from assessing stakeholders' views towards various management options to control and eradicate wild hogs. A statewide mail survey of 5000 randomly selected landowners in Tennessee counties known to have wild hogs yielded 1620 completed responses (33% response rate). Using this dataset, an index of potential for conflict among landowner groups was computed for each of eleven management options, which varied from leaving the wild hogs alone, to both lethal and non-lethal options. Results indicate varying levels of potential for conflict depending on hunter status, wild hog hunter status, presence of wild hogs on land, percent of income derived from land, and amount of land damage caused by wild hogs. Overall, three management options including leaving the wild hogs alone, allowing sale of wild hogs, and capturing and relocating were found unacceptable whereas many other options including capturing and killing, providing technical assistance to landowners and educating people on preventing damage were found to have high level of acceptability and most consensus among landowner subgroups. Findings will be useful in understanding how support for wild hog control options vary across population segments, and which options are likely to see more or less resistance from certain landowners.

Assessing landowners' attitudes toward wild hogs and support for control options.

Wild hogs (Sus scrofa) are an invasive species with destructive habits, particularly rooting and wallowing, which can directly impact agricultural crops, pasture land, and water quality. Considering wild hogs are widely dispersed across the landscape, they are extremely difficult to control. Disagreements can arise among different stakeholders over whether and how their populations should be managed. The purpose of this article was to examine Tennessee, United States landowners' attitudes toward wild hogs, to compare acceptability of control methods, and to evaluate factors significantly influencing public support for regulations to control wild hogs. Logistic regression was employed to analyze data collected from a statewide survey of rural landowners in the fall of 2015. Landowners had overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards wild hogs, and were concerned about their impact on the natural environment and rural economy. Although landowners showed support for controlling wild hogs, levels of acceptability for management options varied. Respondents favored active management and supported education and incentive-based control programs to control wild hogs. Cognitive concepts such as social and personal norms and awareness of consequences, as well as demographic characteristics, significantly predicted landowners' support for state regulations to control wild hogs in Tennessee. Findings increase our understanding of the human dimensions of wild hog management and that of other similarly invasive animals, and may guide resource managers in designing effective and socially acceptable management strategies to control wild hog populations in Tennessee and elsewhere.