A recent study showed feral swine cost the Florida cattle industry about $2 million a year.
The study – led by Samantha Wisely, a UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences associate professor of wildlife ecology and conservation – explained that Florida’s cattle industry loses the money due to a phenomenon called rooting, by which feral swine, or pigs, hunt for food.
The swine are often found on cattle ranches because hunting permits in the southeastern U.S. allow them to be there.
In the process of turning over soil, swine can dig about two feet deep, which completely buries and destroys the soil, Wisely said. This makes the grass that could grow toxic to cattle.
In the 14-month study, Wisely said she compared areas that had been rooted with areas that were unrooted. She discovered rooted areas had a higher percentage of plants cattle couldn’t eat.
“Basically, they reduce the amount of food cattle can eat,” Wisely said about the swine. “The way cattlemen make money is by increasing the weight of cattle; if they don’t have enough grass, they don’t put on enough weight.”
- Jessica Rodriguez
A UF student is studying how hunger affects playfulness in dogs for his senior thesis.
James Jimenez, a 21-year-old UF psychology senior, said he is collecting data on dog behavior and playfulness for a research study through UF’s Animal Behavior and Welfare Lab and Oregon State University’s Human-Animal Interaction Lab. The study measures a dog’s playfulness after it has eaten and again when it hasn’t been fed for several hours.
He said he started researching at the lab his sophomore year. He wanted to research something students wouldn’t learn about in an average psychology class.
Jimenez said he collects data by playing with dogs of students and Gainesville residents. The research is based off a 1998 study on cats’ levels of play in relation to hunger.
“Basically that’s what we’re replicating, just in dogs,” he said. “Typically, they’re going to be more playful, because when you’re interacting with them, they expect some kind of food.”
- Katelyn Newberg
