[3] Ossabaw Island hogs have been documented as having a negative impact on endangered species such as the loggerhead sea turtle and snowy plover, disturbing nests and eating eggs.

[3] This, plus the varied other impacts they have on the ecosystem, have convinced the Georgia DNR to recommend the eradication of feral swine via trapping, shooting and hunting by the public.

Captive breeding populations were also previously kept by a few American universities for scientific study and conservation, but these herds were dissolved and have not contributed to the current bloodlines of Ossabaw hogs on the mainland today.

[6] Both the island and mainland populations continue to be considered vulnerable by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), Slow Food USA, and others.

[2] This size is partly due to the phenomenon of insular dwarfism,[8] and individuals kept in off-island farms may grow slightly larger in successive generations.

[2] As a result of life on an island where the abundance and scarcity of food is seasonally variable, Ossabaw hogs store fat in a different manner than most domestic pigs and have a "thrifty gene".

[2] Because this trait makes them useful as a model organism, scientific studies on metabolic syndrome and Type II diabetes have been conducted on the Ossabaw hog.