ABSTRACT

Wild pigs’ (Sus scrofa) association with humans and their residences dates back centuries, with a corresponding well-documented history of conflict (Mayer and Brisbin 2009). Recently, with expanding populations of wild pigs and humans in North America, conflicts have rapidly increased, particularly in urbanized areas. The adaptability and behavioral plasticity of wild pigs, in addition to land-use change and human tolerance, have contributed to opportunities for wild pigs to occupy and, in many cases, thrive in urban settings. Indeed, wild pigs widely occur in urbanized environments across both 440their native and non-native ranges (Gaston 2010, Forman 2014, Adams 2016). As a result, the colonization of urbanized areas by wild pigs leads to diverse problems for people, property, and ecological communities. Solutions for mitigating these conflicts are increasingly being explored and implemented by urban land managers. As interactions with wild pigs in urbanized areas are expected to continue increasing, it is critical that the public, government and nongovernment organizations, and wildlife managers work together to control, mitigate, and prevent the invasion of urbanized areas by wild pigs. They can be destructive and dangerous animals in urbanized areas, and there are unique challenges with managing this invasive species in developed settings.