Follow the facts
Good questions deserve clear sources.
Here’s how to read the numbers, follow the evidence and give credit where it belongs.
A free public research reference — with its limits in view.
Keep the source with the story
Use this citation for the Texas Hog Dispatch compilation. For a study’s findings, cite the original research linked on that topic’s page.
This is an undated, changing resource. APA uses n.d.; the access date records your visit, not publication or research review.
APA reference
Preparing citation with your access date…
Reader’s access date: Loading…Your local calendar date when this page opened.
Plain-text entries are provided for this compilation; apply any required italics or hanging indent in your document. No publication date or DOI is assigned to the Tracker.
The existing APA wording is retained. APA’s official website blocked access during this audit, so its current guidance was not reverified. MLA’s official quick guide and access-date guidance and Chicago’s official web-page examples were consulted.
01 / Read the numbers
Presence, abundance, scenarios and observations can inform one another, but they are not interchangeable. These are not a ranked quality ladder or mutually exclusive confidence levels.
Where has presence been reported?
A presence record establishes a report within a county under that source’s methods and time period. It does not count animals or establish equal abundance.
What it cannot establish: No report is not proof that a county is hog-free. The 2024 presence dataset is separate from the Tracker’s numerical county estimates.
How many animals are estimated?
A numerical estimate approximates abundance. Its meaning depends on the geography, year, sampling or allocation method and uncertainty.
What it cannot establish: The Tracker’s county values lack traceable per-county derivations. A displayed integer is not a precise census, documented range or agency measurement.
What happens under chosen assumptions?
The Growth Calculator interpolates between published historical five-year scenarios and applies the implied growth rate to a chosen starting population.
What it cannot establish: Models are not forecasts. The acreage-based starting count uses a habitat-specific density assumption; it is not a property survey or county estimate derivation.
What was seen at a place and time?
An observation describes an encounter or sign, such as rooting, at a particular location and time. Identification, effort and review affect interpretation.
What it cannot establish: An observation is not a county population count. Private community reports are reviewed separately and are not a live public feed or automatic update to county values.
A limitation worth making visible
The current Map & County Explorer is a research atlas: Census county boundaries, curated sourced cases, county profiles, a per-county .txt research brief and a county-directory CSV. It does not display per-county population estimates or treat any county as verified for hog abundance. The Tracker’s older stored county records — population estimates, annual births, activity labels, trajectories and dates — still exist and the limitation below still applies to them.
The available records and repository do not establish how each county number was originally selected or derived. There are no per-county source links, study years, uncertainty ranges or derivation notes in the county table, and no recoverable numerical seed/import or allocation formula was found in the inspected repository.
The NRI statewide estimate and reported county-presence statement do not validate these individual county allocations. Do not present every county value as an agency-measured or individually source-backed count, or treat the county sum as an independent statewide estimate.
Stored county values are displayed directly and can be edited by an authorized administrator. The inspected migrations define the county fields and update timestamp trigger, but do not document the original numerical inputs or a county allocation method.
The earlier numerical explorer’s CSV and PDF exports reused these stored county values; exporting them adds no new evidence. Their broad agency attribution is not per-row provenance. That earlier mapping also dropped the row update timestamp before export, so a blank “Record Updated” field is not evidence of no change. PDF “Data as of” wording is not a research-review date.
The county edit handler sets the “last sighted” field to the edit date. Consequently, the displayed “Last Reported” date cannot, on its own, verify an actual field observation. Activity and trajectory labels also lack documented source thresholds in the inspected code.
The separate Growth Calculator uses shared historical model functions. Its scenarios do not establish the provenance of the stored county estimates. Neither county maps nor observation maps establish operator availability.
02 / Follow the source
Start with a source’s actual scope: place, year, method and what it measures. This directory supports the methodology page; topic-specific studies remain on their research pages. Inclusion does not imply institutional endorsement or partnership.
Texas population & reported distribution
Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute · April 2026
What this supports: Statewide estimate of more than 3 million wild pigs; reported presence in 250 of 254 counties in the 2024 dataset.
The article attributes the county distribution statement to USDA (2024). It does not supply the Tracker’s individual county abundance values or an allocation formula. Dallam, El Paso, Hansford and Sherman were not reported present in that dataset; that does not establish absence.
National program & distribution context
USDA APHIS · agency resource page
What this supports: Agency context on feral swine, management and distribution resources.
This is an agency resource page, not a report titled “Wild Hog Working Group Annual State Summary Report.” It does not validate this Tracker’s numerical county allocations. Consult the dates and methods on each linked distribution product.
Historical growth scenarios
Timmons and colleagues · 2012 · Texas A&M AgriLife SP-472
What this supports: Historical five-year harvest scenarios used by the shared Growth Calculator.
The calculator interpolates five-year multiples between published removal-rate scenarios, capped at the 66% benchmark. The 2010 harvest estimate, publication year and PDF hosting path are different dates. This existing publication link returned access denied during this audit; its contents were not newly reverified.
Ecology & management reference
John C. Kinsey · 2020 · Texas Parks & Wildlife Department
What this supports: Wild-pig natural history, reproduction and management context.
Use the original publication for its ecological findings and context. This guide is not a source table for the Tracker’s per-county numbers, and linking it does not imply agency endorsement of THD.
03 / Updates & corrections
County record metadata
Latest county record timestamp
This is the latest county-row timestamp returned by the Tracker, not a source-verification date or whole-dataset review.
No fixed review schedule has been established. Source updates and corrections can be incorporated, but there is no guaranteed annual refresh or comprehensive verification date.
Found a questionable number, broken source or missing context? Include the page, county or claim, and a supporting source if available.
Press and researcher data inquiries: data@texashogdispatch.com.
The dataset behind this tracker — county-level population estimates, activity levels and trajectories, and exports derived from them — is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license. You are free to use, share, adapt, and republish the data for any purpose, including commercially, with attribution to Texas Hog Dispatch.
This license applies specifically to the underlying dataset. It does not cover the Texas Hog Dispatch name, logo, seal, site design, written copy, or any other brand assets — those remain the property of Texas Hog Dispatch and are not licensed for reuse under CC BY 4.0.