Why… It’s a Javelina!!
The Javelina, scientific name: Tayassuidae; also known as: A peccary is a medium-sized hoofed mammal of the family Tayassuidae (New World pigs) in the suborder Suina along with the Old World pigs, Suidae. They are found throughout Central and South America as well as in in the Southwestern area of North America (Big Bend National Park, AZ, Southern NM, and Western Texas). Peccaries usually measure between 3.0 and 4.3 ft. in length, and a full-grown adult usually weighs 44 to 88 lbs. They are very social and live in herds, sometimes up to 40-60 members.
Now that that is over, bottom line – they resemble wild boars and pigs (with large tusks, a pig looking nose, and coarse hair), and are often labelled as such. While running our motorcycle enduro-tours business in West Texas when camping, we used to run into them a lot during the trips. Especially on one tour. It occurred while camping one night in Big Bend National Park. We had ridden over 250 miles in desert and on ranch roads all day and straight into the Park. There awaited my wife with assorted Japanese food (hot Japanese curry with meat and rice, sushi, fresh iced and diced fruit and of course bier). All of it prepared like a buffet and the camp sites all set up with everyone’s gear. The customers loved it, and dug in. I had already briefed the customers about the Javelina. Most people had never heard of one, especially our Canadian, East coast Americans and European clients. They knew not to feed them and stay clear, they ran in packs and get a “pack mentality” when in large numbers (braver, more brazen, and generally aggressive especially if food is present). If you see a lone one, the herd is not far away. We controlled the food and cleared it out before dark - locked it up in the van after we ate and before sunset. Dusk and nighttime is the Javelina’s favorite time of day – right after the desert heat subsides.
We were camping in an official national park campground, other people were also there camping. On the picnic tables at each site was a metal sign giving information on Javelinas to the unknowing. In big black letters it stated, “Don’t Feed the Javelinas”. There were a few people camping in the area from vehicles that night. A couple of middle-aged men were camping on one side of our client’s tent.
With a fire going, everyone settled in to talk about that days ride. One client had run over a rattle snake that day and was describing it. I briefly saw the one he might have run over. It was a 10’ long at least, really big. He had never seen one so close! I had run over more than a few over the last couple of years, this was their country too – we were the intruders! Another customer saw him do it, and noted that the snake just continued on his way into a prickly pear cactus patch! A snake that big would not have been harmed by a Suzuki DR 650 in sand going 30-40 MPH. They were tough. Desert and cactus tough. More stories were swapped, while I checked the bike tires to make sure no one had taken any cactus or mesquite thorns. Sometime the Mesquite thorns could penetrate a tire and they were like hard 3-5” long nails. It would side line a bike for the rest of the tour. This one was 3 days long and this was day 1. If needed, I would repair the tire and we would be good to go in the morning. The van had a tire machine, compressor and lots of tubes/tires and other various spare parts. One had to be prepared out here. The nearest town was 120 miles in any direction. Real wilderness of the desert kind.
Everyone retired to their tents, tired from the day’s ride around 9 or 10 PM. All was quiet. We had seen a few Javelina grazing on some rare green grass a few empty camp sites over. Everyone snapped pictures and stayed clear. The campground had large cotton wood trees for shade and some grass had actually grown. Javelins will eat mostly roots and seeds, but love small mice and meat too. They would basically eat anything edible and small enough, their large tusks sticking out of their mouths were mostly for cutting into cactus, foraging for roots or munching on tough prairie grasses.
About 3 or 4 AM we were all awakened by screaming, grunts and high pitched screeching coming from the camp site the two men were in. The 2 men were yelling, “help”. I got up fast and headed over to their direction with the flashlight. I could hear the grunts and screeches and knew immediately, Javelina trouble! Large numbers of them too!!
I got to their campsite, and both men were standing on the top of the picnic table surrounded by at least 20 or 25 angry Javelinas. One was up on the bench and heading towards them. I was joined quickly by a couple of our desert-rat-riders. I grabbed a large branch that was dead and on the ground and started to swoosh with it in large circles into the outer ranks of the pack. Luckily, the Javelina scattered. One of the German riders grabbed another dead limb and started to do the same. The pack started to disperse and ran off into the cactus, towards the Rio Grande River and Mexico (about 100 yards from campgrounds). The instigating campers jumped down from the picnic table, ever thankful for the help. Very shook up.
I asked, “How did you get into this?”
“We had a big bag of corn chips and were feeding a couple of them. All seemed tame enough until 5 more and then 15 more arrived. We ran out of chips and they cornered us onto the top of the table!”
The Canadian rider said, “Didn’t you see the sign, ah..?” As he pointed to the metal sign on the picnic table they were standing on…
“We did but they seemed peaceful enough at first and actually tame,” said one of the men. Both seemed embarrassed at this point, given that the danger was gone.
I just started to laugh and chuckling stated, “They are wild and pack animals, the larger the numbers the more dangerous they become. Kinda-a-like, never underestimate large numbers of stupid people in a crowd! Everyone laughed and went back to bed.
That night the pack came back traveling and on the move as they always do. Single file one after another around the campground. Probably looking for more hand-outs! I heard them and knew that in this formation and without food around, they were just moving about doing their normal scavenging. I had told the riders after the rescue (and alone) that this is expected behavior, and not to fret if they run through the camp single file. They would not attack and would move on quickly. I did not tell the two men who had attracted 25 of them with corn chips!
Later that day about 130 miles in during that day's desert run, we stopped for a stretch and water break. One of the riders said that he had talked to the two men in the morning just before we mounted the bikes. One of them said that they, “stayed up all night frightened while they listened to the Javelina’s running around, didn’t get a wink of sleep”! At that we all laughed vigorously.
The German rider commented, “They deserved it, Ja!!”
“Read the sign and, don’t feed the Javelinas!” Said one of the riders. We all laughed again…