Javelina Babies

On Monday a herd of javelina made their way through our yard digging and playing. There were babies, too. Most notable was the appearance of twin babies that must have just been born. They were only six or seven inches tall! So cute we could hardly stand it. We see them fairly often out here.

Javelina are also known as collared peccaries. They look like wild pigs but are technically not pigs. They are distantly related, though. There are three known species of peccary in the Americas. Two of them live in South America, the white-lipped peccary and the chacoan peccary. javelina habitat ranges from Central America up to the southwest U.S.A. Apparently their may be another species, called the giant peccary, that has been recently spotted in the Brazilian rainforest but this has not yet been confirmed, according to Wikipedia. The first appearance of javelina in Arizona was not that long ago. They migrated north from Central America and their habitat is still spreading, mostly toward the north and west.

Adult males generally weigh about 60lbs with the females being slightly smaller. Javelina have lived as long as 24 years in captivity but in the wild their lifespan is more like 7 or 8 years. We have seen herds of approximately 20 animals here even though the official literature says their groups are more like 9 or 10 animals. They breed year-round with most births occurring in July and August.

They mostly seem to eat plants but they also do a lot of digging. Maybe they are digging up roots or grubs? Gardeners in the Prescott area all have to do something to keep them out. They can decimate a garden in a single night. They mostly ignore humans but can become aggressive if cornered. I have surprised quite a few of them while hiking. It seems that they don't see well. If you are downwind you can get pretty close.

Some people hunt them. There are a couple of seasons for this. Right now it is archery season for javelina. Last year some hunters gave us a couple of livers. My wife liked them but they tasted too strong for me. Mostly we tell the critters to run if we see hunters coming for them! We like seeing them running around. Fortunately our garden is well fenced.

I shot some video of the javelina and their cute babies and pieced it together in a 30-second piece that you can view here.