ABSTRACT
The behaviors and spatial ecology of invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) in modern North America reflect the capacity for wildlife to evolutionarily adapt, develop complex behaviors honed from interactions with the environment, survive, and in some cases thrive in increasingly human-dominated landscapes. Biologically, wild pigs reach sexual maturity at a young age, are capable of farrowing large litters, breed year-round (Comer and Mayer 2009), and have high survivability in the wild (see Chapter 4). Behaviorally, wild pigs exhibit substantial plasticity and can readily adjust life history strategies in response to their surroundings. For example, in urban landscapes wild pigs increase nocturnal activity to minimize their interactions with humans (Hanson and Karstad 1959, Podgórski et al. 2013). Furthermore, as dietary generalists (Senior et al. 2016) wild pigs can readily adapt to a variety of environments (Baskin and Danell 2003) and these attributes help make wild pigs successful invaders in novel environments.
