Abstract
The increasing frequency of wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) is a globally recognized problem that can severely impact both the animals and humans involved in these accidents. Introduced wild pigs (Sus scrofa) have been present in various parts of the USA for centuries, but no study on wild pig-vehicle collisions (WPVCs) has been conducted on a national scale for the USA Using data provided by State Farm, we derived the number of vehicle collisions with wild pigs by state in the USA over the 2015–2022 period and the associated vehicle damage costs. In 2022, we estimated that a total of 16,714 wild pig-vehicle collisions occurred, which necessitated $103.8 million in vehicle repair costs. Texas bore the highest burden ($56.2 million), followed by Florida ($12.4 million). We showed that the ratio of collisions with wild pigs to vehicle miles traveled increased with state-level wild pig density and that this ratio is more than seven times higher in Hawaii and Texas than could be expected based solely on the local wild pig densities. Compared to other WVCs, only 1.64% of these accidents were caused by WPVCs. Nationally, WPVCs caused 0.18% of the annual attrition in wild pig populations. WPVCs impose a substantial financial burden to the USA that is unlikely to decrease in the immediate future. WPVC risks are driven by state-specific effects indicating the presence of strong influencing factors at the individual state level. It is thus imperative that transportation and wildlife managers adequately study the issue and collect the data required for mitigation.
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Notes
Specifically, we use the Stata command nbreg y x, vce(robust) exposure() where y is the count of WPVCs, x is list of independent variables, and exposure() includes our measure of exposure—the number of VMT—which allows us to model the WPVC per VMT rate.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Vince Hummel from State Farm (Senior Research System Analyst) for patiently assisting us with compiling the underlying data. We would also like to thank D. Bergman and M. Bodenchuk for providing input, reviewing, and improving our manuscript.
Funding
This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the National Feral Swine Program. Support for JJM was provided by the U. S. Department of Energy to Battelle Savannah River Alliance under contract 89303321CEM000080.
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McKee, S.C., Psiropoulos, J.L. & Mayer, J.J. Frequency and vehicle damage costs of wild pig-vehicle collisions in the United States, 2015–2022. Eur J Wildl Res 70, 44 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-024-01792-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10344-024-01792-5