I examined home range, habitat use, and survival of 29 feral hogs in central Mississippi using radio telemetry. During the dry season (1 April - 31 October 2005), densely-vegetated habitats were very important in home range placement (2nd-order selection) with selection favoring seasonallylooded old fields, followed by old fields and managed openings. During the wet season (1 November 2005 - 31 March 2006), old fields were still preferred followed by agricultural fields, but flooded old fields were not preferred. For habitat selection within the home range (3rd-order selection), hogs preferred old fields and managed openings during the dry season. All habitats were used randomly within home ranges during the wet season. Dry and wet season survival rates were 80.8% and 41.4%, respectively. Hunting was the major cause of mortality (80 ? 100%). Seasonal differences in habitat selection may have been caused by flooding of preferred habitats, food availability and hunting.

It is widely recognized that livestock industries are vulnerable to intentional or accidental introductions of Foreign Animal Diseases (FADs). Combating disease is difficult because of unknown wildlife-livestock interactions. Feral hogs (Sus scrofa) could harbor and shed disease in areas used by domestic livestock such as cattle (Bos taurus). Extent of risk logically depends on spatio-temporal interactions between species. I used Global Positioning System (GPS) collars on cattle and hogs in combination with a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for detailed analysis on movement patterns of these 2 species on a ranch in southwestern Texas, USA. Motion-triggered video recorders were also utilized to determine interspecific activity patterns. I tested hypotheses that spatio-temporal distributions of domestic cattle and feral hogs on rangeland overlap and that interspecific contact occurs. If these posits are true, it is possible that introduced pathogens like foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) could be transmitted from feral hogs to cattle. Using a rate of 1 GPS fix/15 min (96 fixes/day), I found that spatial distribution of individual hogs and cattle overlapped on both the 95% and 50% kernel area use among 4 seasons. Both cows and feral hogs used Clay Flat, Clay Loam, and Rolling Hardland more so than other range sites. During Summer 2004, riparian zones were the most used feature, identified at 14% (2,760/19,365) of cattle and 70% (445/632) of hog fixes. Other than brush strips, cattle and feral hogs primarily interacted at riparian zones, fencelines, and roads. There were no direct interspecific contacts evident from GPS data, but 3 cases were recorded from video data. Indirect interspecific contacts that may be sufficient for disease transmission occurred much more frequently (GPS = 3.35 indirect contacts/day, video = cows follow hogs: 0.69 indirect contacts/day and hogs follow cows: 0.54 indirect contacts/day). Research results suggested that both species often travel along the same roads and fencelines to water and food sources, especially during extreme heat and low-precipitation conditions. This research provides basic information needed to improve models for management of FAD outbreaks in the U.S., based on specific knowledge of landscape usage and movement patterns of feral hogs and cattle.