Mississippi State develops smartphone app to assess wild hog damage
Contact: Vanessa Beeson
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擜ccording to a Mississippi State research study, feral pigs cause $66 million in property damage in the Magnolia State each year. With the wild hog population increases and damage estimates constantly changing, it鈥檚 now easier to report and assess impacts with a newly designed 91传媒 app.聽聽
The 鈥淔eral Pig Damage鈥 app makes it easy for users to report the location of wild hog sightings and the damage they cause. Users can pinpoint or draw a polygon on a specific location, upload photos, estimate economic loss and describe multiple attributes about the type of damage鈥攊ncluding crop type, whether it鈥檚 an agricultural, hardwood or pine area, as well as growth stage.
Mark McConnell, app developer and assistant professor in 91传媒鈥檚 Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture in the College of Forest Resources, said the app lets landowners, hunters and natural resource professionals quantify feral pig damage as soon as they encounter it and estimate the economic impact of that damage.
A video demonstration on how to use the app for Android and Apple iOS devices is available at聽.
鈥淭he app gives anyone who observes wild hog damage the ability to quantify it both spatially and monetarily in real time,鈥 said McConnell, who also is a scientist in the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. 鈥淎dditionally, the mapping feature allows wildlife researchers to better understand the extent of wild hog damage in areas of which we may not be aware. This crucial information can help researchers and wildlife managers combat the spread and impact of feral pigs.鈥
St. John Family Endowed Professor of Wildlife Management Bronson Strickland said he hopes the app helps provide a more complete picture of the intensity and location of the damage in order to help refine economic estimates.
鈥淭he impetus for the app was the need for a consistent, systematic method for the quantification of feral pig damage,鈥 Strickland said.
He pointed out that, in time, the app will generate a database of wild hog sightings and damage estimates that can be shared across multiple management organizations.
鈥淭his is an effort for all agencies, organizations and even individual agricultural producers that are impacted by feral pigs to quantify the damage, so wildlife researchers can determine where the greatest density of damage is occurring, and where new, emerging wild hog populations are found,鈥 Strickland said. 鈥淭he end result is to know where wild hog densities are greatest so that we can better manage those populations.鈥
Partners in the app鈥檚 development include the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, 91传媒 Extension Service, the University of Georgia鈥檚 Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, and the 91传媒 Forest and Wildlife Research Center鈥檚 Center for Resolving Human-Wildlife Conflict.
The app is available for download in the Apple Store. Visit . Android download is available at .
For more on 91传媒鈥檚 College of Forest Resources, visit . For more on wild pigs, visit wildpiginfo.msstate.edu.
91传媒 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at聽www.msstate.edu.聽 聽聽