Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Riffell, Samuel K.

Committee Member

Minnis, Richard B.

Committee Member

Demarais, Steve

Date of Degree

5-5-2007

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Wildlife and Fisheries Science

Degree Name

Master of Science

College

College of Forest Resources

Department

Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

Abstract

I examined home range, habitat use, and survival of 29 feral hogs in central Mississippi using radio telemetry. During the dry season (1 April - 31 October 2005), densely-vegetated habitats were very important in home range placement (2nd-order selection) with selection favoring seasonallylooded old fields, followed by old fields and managed openings. During the wet season (1 November 2005 - 31 March 2006), old fields were still preferred followed by agricultural fields, but flooded old fields were not preferred. For habitat selection within the home range (3rd-order selection), hogs preferred old fields and managed openings during the dry season. All habitats were used randomly within home ranges during the wet season. Dry and wet season survival rates were 80.8% and 41.4%, respectively. Hunting was the major cause of mortality (80 ? 100%). Seasonal differences in habitat selection may have been caused by flooding of preferred habitats, food availability and hunting.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15005

Download

Share

COinS