Are warthog populations expanding in Texas?
According to this photo sent to us from Mike Fewell last month, there are absolutely free-ranging warthogs in South Texas in Dimmit County.
UPDATE: New video on Texas warthogs here.
“My brother took the picture outside the drive side window. I was on the passenger side. Feel free to share,” he said.
In 2015, a warthog was killed at the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area in South Texas.
Houston Chronicle outdoor writer Shannon Tompkins broke the story which revealed there was a growing population of warthogs in the area.
“The Chaparral WMA is in the center of what evidence indicates is a growing, range-expanding, self-sustaining feral population of African warthogs, the first such population on this continent. And that worries state wildlife managers such as Lange, who see the non-native warthogs, which can weigh more than 200 pounds, as having the potential to negatively affect native wildlife and habitat.”
The evidence continues to build: free-ranging warthogs are not just a one-off curiosity in South Texas—they’re becoming a part of the landscape.
The Red river hog is a native of West-Central Africa and rarely shies from the thick cover of rainforests.
That makes the fact Steven Anderson caught one in a hog trap west of San Antonio, TX highly strange or at least a bit mysterious. A friend tagged me in this on Facebook and then I reached out to Anderson to see if I could share here at fishgame.com. These unique animals are close kin to the bush pig of Africa and are rare on ranches in the United States.
The Red river hog has a unique look and generally calm captive demeanor make them increasingly popular with zoos and wildlife parks but so far I have not heard of any on exotic hunting ranches in Texas although this is most likely where this particular specimen comes from. At the time of this writing no one had stepped forward and claimed the hog came from their property.