D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
December 2010
This Little Non-Piggy
Despite appearances, the all-too-familiar javelina is not a pig. So what the heck is it?
Story and photos by Jay W. Sharp
With apologies to Gertrude Stein, who once famously said, "A rose is a rose is a rose," the javelina is not a pig is not a pig is not a pig!
 |
Javelina, or collared peccary, El Paso Zoo. Note the band of coarse white
hair around its neck. |
Superficially, the javelina looks like a pig. It walks like a pig. It roots like a pig. It has beady eyes like a pig. It has ears something like a pig. It has a snout like a pig. Therefore, it must be...
But no, it's not a pig!
It's actually a peccary, or specifically, in our region — southwestern and southeastern New Mexico, southern and central Arizona and western Texas — it's a collared peccary, or, scientifically, a Pecari tajacu.
The javelina, a member of the Tayassuidae family, evolved in the South American tropics; the pig, a member of the Suidae family, in Eurasia. Anatomically, the javelina — substantially smaller than the domesticated or feral pig — has:
- A more streamlined shape with proportionally slimmer legs, which, surprisingly, carry it at speeds of more than 20 miles per hour.
- Straight canine teeth, or tusks — in fact, the longest and sharpest of any non-carnivore, according to Keridwen Cornelius, writing for Arizona Highways; the pig has curved tusks.
- Thirty-eight teeth, says the National Park Service; the pig has 34 or 44 teeth.
- Three toes on the hind foot; the pig, four.
- A short tail; the pig, a somewhat longer tail.
- A complex, or compartmentalized, stomach; the pig, a simple, or single-compartment, stomach.
- A scent gland on its rump, near the base of its tail; the pig has none. The javelina smells musky; the pig, if domesticated, smells like a barnyard.
In spite of their differences, the javelina and the pig share enough similarities that they serve as a classic example of parallel evolution.
Distinctive Features
As Texas Parks & Wildlife says, the adult javelina's hide is covered with grizzled black and grayish hair. Its neck is encircled with a band of coarse white hair — hence the name, "collared" peccary. Along the length of its back, it has a mane of dark hair that bristles if the animal becomes agitated or frightened.
Typically the adult javelina stands 18 to 20 inches high at the shoulder. It measures about 36 to 40 inches in length. It weighs some 35 to 60 pounds. It has a long-snouted head with a disk-like nose (much like a pig's nose). It has those beady eyes. It has comparatively small ears with rounded tips. Its tail measures only some one to two inches in length. It has slender legs and hoofed feet. The male (called a boar) and female (called a sow) are almost indistinguishable without a close look, although, on average, the boar is a bit larger.
The javelina has an acute sense of smell and a good sense of hearing, but it has relatively poor eyesight, especially in the dim light of dawn and dusk and in the darkness of night. In fact, confused by the indistinct images it sees, the animal, trying to escape a threat, sometimes appears to charge right into the danger.
Our collared peccary is one of four species and the only one in our area. The other three, all occurring only in Latin America, are the white-lipped peccary, the chacoan peccary and the giant peccary. According to Science Daily, the giant peccary — the largest of the four species — was discovered just three years ago, in the southeastern Amazon region.
Distribution and Habitat
The collared peccary's range blankets most of South America's northern half, all of Central America, most of Mexico, most of southern Texas and significant parts of the Southwest. Its south-to-north distribution, according to the Arizona Game and Fish Department, represents "one of the greatest latitudinal ranges of any New World game animal." Ironically, the collared peccary arrived in the Southwest by migration at roughly the same time the domestic pig arrived by Spanish importation. Apparently, the javelina's growth of population and range in our region has paralleled the expansion of scrub brush, which has taken over much of the desert grasslands grazed out in historic times by domestic livestock.
 |
Javelina relaxing in cool damp soil, El Paso Zoo. |
Highly adaptable, the collared peccary prospers in remarkably diverse habitats — ranging, says the Smithsonian National Zoological Park, from the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts, to arid woodlands, to oak woodlands, to tropical rainforests (to say nothing of camping and picnic grounds, backyard gardens, rubbish bins and outside pet-food feeders). In the deserts, it prefers dense brush and woody shade, which provide cover for escape from predators and protection from the extremes of summer and winter weather.
In southwestern New Mexico, it favors brushy desert and rocky canyons, preferably near water sources. For instance, it occurs, writes Pat Meitin in Rocky Mountain Game & Fish: in the Big Hatchet Wildlife Management Area in the Bootheel, typically near windmills or seeps; in the Florida Mountains near Deming, especially in sandy washes with seeps or springs; in the woodlands near Pinos Altos, particularly around gardens and rubbish cans; in the woodlands of the southern Black Range Mountains, usually in open areas near water; and in the canyons and foothills near Alma, off Hwy. 180, near the lower San Francisco River and Mineral Creek.
Diet
"The javelina is omnivorous, which means it will eat almost anything available," says Texas Parks & Wildlife. Its diet includes, for instance, "cacti, fruits, tubers, bulbs, beans, nuts and forbs," as well as sotol and the lechuguilla agave. In some areas, it feeds year-round on prickly pear as well as barrel, cholla and hedgehog cacti — succulents that satisfy much of the animal's moisture requirements and some of its nutritional requirements. It may eat several pounds of the cacti in a day, then supplement its diet with more nutritious grasses and green forbs.