Tim Kennedy on wildlife: what the evidence says · JRE #1535
SUBJECT: WILDLIFE
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
Why when you have 5 billion pigs in Texas, why would you cook a nasty one or just go get a nice sweet one over there? And there's so many of them.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The speaker stated that Texas has 5 billion feral (wild) pigs. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the state agency responsible for wildlife management, estimates the Texas feral hog population at roughly 2.6 million, out of a U.S. national total estimated at about 6.9 million as of 2016 (up from 2.4 million nationally in 1982). The figure cited in the claim is roughly 1,900 times higher than the state agency's estimate. While feral hogs are widely described as extremely numerous and are found in nearly every Texas county, no reputable wildlife agency or study supports a population anywhere near the billions; population counts for wild pigs are generally in the low millions nationwide. The claim substantially overstates the actual documented population by several orders of magnitude.