This one’s for Somewhere Else…
A couple weekends ago, J. of Somewhere Else was asking about the creatures that inhabit the ranch, and I mentioned that javelinas abound here. She asked what it looked like. A pig with hair and tusks. She asked what it is. A peccary. She asked whether I have any photos…
My front yard:
The state of Arizona allows a person to kill one javelina a year. There are javelina roasts here, especially in the fall. I have never partaken, and now, I never will…the thing about javelinas that I’ve recently learned is that they’re extremely familial, extremely community-oriented. They mourn their dead. Which explains R.’s anecdotal evidence of the same from last fall: he was driving into town in the early morning and saw a dead baby javelina on the side of the road, and an adult javelina (alive) hovering over the body, just in the shoulder. When he drove home about 12 hours later, there was the parent (?), in the exact same position, seemingly guarding its perished young. It hadn’t moved. The whole desert-day long.
That did it for me. I no longer refer to them as damn pigs, even though the beloved Gus dog did once get gored by one. They rank somewhere between rattlesnakes and coyotes on my personal scale of stuff that scares me here. (Because they don’t try to warn you before unleashing their particular brand of violence, scorpions rank higher than anything else.)
There is a very cute children’s book that I wholeheartedly recommend, based on the tale of The Three Little Pigs, but with a Western slant: The Three Little Javelinas
OmegaGranny has javelina who eat her bulbs every year (but not the daffodils). They also eat other of her flowers. We had elk, instead, up in the mountains…
Comment by: OmegaMom - 08.22.2007 - 1.22 pm
Wow — those are scary, yet lovely at the same time, as nature often is.
Comment by: Cavatica - 08.22.2007 - 1.23 pm
Oh! Gorgeous pictures! And heartbreaking story about the baby and parent pig! I have heard that peccaries have a particular pungent smell (alliteration was unintentional). What does Emme Lu think of them?
Comment by: Maia - 08.22.2007 - 2.18 pm
Those things just run wild there? Fascinating. And that story…… ugh, my heart!
Comment by: Jacquie - 08.22.2007 - 5.41 pm
They’re actually kind of cute….from far, far away. I heard the little suckers are mean!
Comment by: christie - 08.22.2007 - 9.16 pm
As OmegaMom says, the javelina munch out on my garden every spring. They especially like the grape hyacinths, always leaving a few little bulblets behind for next year. When food gets scarce in the woods, they show up for any edible succulent plant (that includes California poppy roots.) I’m less than a mile from the city square and yet these critters have a routine path down the hill through my yard. In fact, they sometimes wallow up the hill away from the house.
Comment by: Julie - 08.22.2007 - 9.26 pm
Thank you!! Okay, they would scare me a little (or a lot, depending on size and quantity) if I ran into any in real life.
Dude, I’m so dumb I thought it spelled with an “h”.
Comment by: Jessi - 08.23.2007 - 5.25 am
Gosh we live in such different worlds. I look out my front door to a street with sidewalks, tons of parked cars, and people walking dogs. I hear the train in the distance and have many shops and places to eat within a few blocks. I am fascinated by your “pigs” and this story.
Comment by: M - 08.23.2007 - 6.31 am
Yes, my sister in law lives in Tuscon and it about scared me to death one day seeing a Javelina walk across her driveway. This was about 6 hours after seeing a rattlesnake on their back porch. Amazing. Scary Amazing.
Comment by: Perrin - 08.23.2007 - 1.58 pm
I’ve seen them before, in Big Bend National Park. Not realizing they were dangerous. I was throwing the fallen acorns their way. They’re beautiful, I think, in their unique javelina way..
Comment by: walternatives - 08.23.2007 - 3.23 pm
A co-worker of ours hunts them with a hand gun. And this is how I know that hand gun hunting is an actual, legally prescribed season… Nice, huh?!
Comment by: atomic mama - 08.27.2007 - 9.00 pm