Fortunately wolves are not a problem in Texas, but we do have coyotes and feral hogs, both a big problem. Wolves have been gone or mostly gone for a long time.
Coyotes are a problem though, they will wipe out your chickens in no time if they can find a way inside the fence. Hogs do a lot of damage to crops every year, and they have rooted in my yard several times, the last time they did it I watched 3 roam across the yard, and before I could get inside and grab my 243, they were gone again and had rooted up a patch of my mother’s yard you could park 2 cars in.
A neighbor has been losing chickens to the coyotes for a long time, and I saw 2 run across the yard a month ago. Couldn’t make it outside with my 22 pistol (all I had with me) before they disappeared.
Both coyotes and feral hogs are considered non game animals, and pests, legal to hunt any time but a hunting license is required. No bag limits. Hogs are often hunted at night, when they roam around more. About 30 years ago, Texas had a bounty on coyotes, I think it was 2 bucks per ear. You bring in just one ear off every animal you take, they would pay 2 bucks each, coyotes were that big a problem.
I’ve heard that in west texas they sometimes organize large rabbit hunts, to thin out the thousands of rabbits that sometimes beccome serious pests, when they attain those numbers. No natural predators, or few, not many people hunting them, they sometimes become such pests mass hunts have to be organized.
I read an article not long ago, probably here on FR, about the organized helicopter hunts for feral hogs. They have been a big problem for years, millions live in Texas.
Last time I saw any hogs around my neighborhood, I saw 4 or 5 adults and at least 4 young about 100 yards away, in the edge of a large patch of woods. Some of them are huge, probably close to the 400 pound mark. I used to work in cattle auctions, where hogs are brought in too, so I have a good general idea of the size/weight ratio. 300 pounds is a very large animal, and they are dangerous if they get mad or cornered. Don’t even get close to a 300lb sow with 3 or 4 little ones...bad idea...hogs in cattle auctions put me on the fence more than cows did by far. Most of the time your only option is to hop on top of the fence and let it run by...all wooden fences.
About 2 years ago one of them, about a 300 pounder, decided to create a nice wallow under my mother’s house next door, (unoccupied) and broke every water pipe under there. I had to turn all the water off until I found where the actual leak was, which is when I found the hog wallow, and of course replace all the pipes, and had to shoot the damn thing to get it out of our yard, it had decided to live there. There is still a depression over a foot deep and about 5 feet long by 3 feet wide under the house. 3 weeks after I shot the thing it was still too wet to get underneath and work on pipes. The day I found it no way, mud puddle over a foot deep.
“...organized helicopter hunts for feral hogs.”
Using copters to hunt hogs is for fun, but not very effective! Dem hogs ain’t stupid! More effectively, you need to bait and trap them. Then shoot ‘em or sell ‘em off to butchers. See the video about HogDini! He learned to climb 7-8 foot trap wire fences! They updated the trap with over-arching fencing to defeat him!
Feral pigs do enormous damage, as shown by your example. Billions of dollars a year.