ABSTRACT
Understanding population dynamics of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is an exercise in determining how and why populations increase, decrease, and fluctuate throughout time and space. Many factors are responsible for differences and fluctuations in population sizes of wild pigs, including birth synchronization, climate, pulsing of resources, landscape structure, and disease, among others (Lozan 1995, Bieber and Ruf 2005, Acevedo et al. 2006). While these factors may cause drastic reductions in populations of wild pigs periodically, high reproductive potential offers resiliency to recover, sustain, and flourish under a wide variety of conditions (Mayer 2009). Because of their high reproductive success, wild pigs are proving to be one of the most challenging invasive species to manage throughout North America and the world (Lowe et al. 2000), and knowledge of population dynamics is critical for making effective management decisions.
