The Abused, Misunderstood Javelina

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THE JAVELINA, or collared peccary, is a small pig-like animal that will weigh, at most, about 60 pounds. Javelinas do not hear well, see even less well, but scent very well. Because of their physical shortcomings, they are relatively easy to hunt with a high-powered rifle, but are great game animals if hunted with open-sighted handguns.

Their only real defense is to stay hidden and run like hell if they smell trouble. They love the thorn brush that covers South Texas and generally abhor open spaces. I have shot exactly two javelinas in my 50 years of hunting and wandering in South Texas. I shot one that was caught in a coyote snare set in a fence with my Border Patrol .357 Magnum duty revolver and one I stalked and shot fairly with a Smith & Wesson 6-inch Model 28. The latter occupies a place of honor over my fireplace.

Now, just because I have shot only two does not mean that is all I have seen. In wandering the Brush Country for 50 years, 22 of those in the Border Patrol, I have seen hundreds, maybe a thousand. I don’t know, really. But I have been within three feet of many and have never felt threatened. Javelina just want to be left alone.

The stories you may have heard of them treeing a person and then milling under the tree in a maniacal frenzy, trying to get to the person to turn him into humanburger, are either apocryphal, untrue, or misunderstood behavior.

On the other hand, they are equipped with the equipment to do tremendous damage if they are threatened too closely. As proof, I offer you the case of a herd that put an 80-pound mountain lion into a mesquite tree when the lion tried to snatch a young one from a herd of about 10.

The extremely unlucky lion was killed by a bow hunter who happened to be sitting in a tripod blind about 10 yards from the lion’s chosen tree. The lion had a cut on one hip that was as clean as though it had been made with a sharp knife! Javelinas also seem to hate dogs, probably because coyotes consider their young to be right tasty snacks.

Now for the sermon:

Javelina once were very common across most of the Southwest, but overhunting, primarily for their skins, which are soft, thin and pliant, almost sent them to extinction in many areas, and did so in a few.

Javelinas are a game animal in Texas. The problem is that the law says the limit is 2 per year, but there is no tag on the license. What does that mean? It means it is an unenforceable law! If a game warden stops a hunter and he has 2 javelinas in his possession, the game warden has no idea how many he has previously killed. He could have killed a hundred, 2 at a time.

Also, many ranchers and lease hunters consider them pests and shoot them on sight because they eat the corn the hunters put out for the high-priced deer. Instead of simply fencing the feeder so the javelinas can’t get to the corn, they kill all the javelinas.

I once had an acquaintance tell me of finding a herd (10 javelinas as I remember it) in a canyon just off the Pecos River, He was immensely proud of the fact that he had killed all 10 before they could get out of the canyon. He considered them as no more than targets to be practiced on.

Think what you will, but I believe that such actions as above are reprehensible and that one of the responsible parties is the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept., because of their unwillingness to give the javelina the same level of respect and protection as the wild turkey.

A few years ago, I officially petitioned TP&WD to place tags for Javelinas on the state license, explaining in the petition the reasons I thought this necessary. Obviously, the petition was rejecteds.

It is not unusual to find entire javelinas in dumpsters or trash pits. Why? Well, they are not that good to eat unless handled promptly, properly, and carefully; they smell bad; and they are always infested with millions of fleas. It took me two weeks to eradicate the fleas in my back yard after caping the one I had mounted.

I wish we could do more to protect javelinas, but I guess, for the time being, all I can do is beg you hunters to treat them with the respect they deserve, and to obey the law, even though the chances of your being caught for shooting too many are slim to none. Maybe some day TP&WD will decide to do something, but until then you are on your honor. The big question is: what is your honor worth?