Back in the ’70s, ’80s ad ’90s studies showed that feral swine were not major predators of alligator nests, says a paper in the current issue of Southeastern Naturalist. More recently, however, alligator farmers have been complaining that a regional increase in feral swine has lead to an increase in alligator egg predation.

About 590 alligator nests were destroyed on 36 different properties, the paper says. The paper also mentions that trying to reduce the number of feral swine on a property does seem to help alligator nest survival rates.

A PDF on feral swine from the US Geological Survey also includes this statistic as well as a photo of an alligator nest after predation by feral swine.

Read the Southeastern Naturalist article here.
Read the US Geological Survey article here.

Photo: Alligator nest after predation by feral swine. Photo by Jeff Donald, courtesy US Geological Survey