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So anyways, Im out for my usual morning hike in North Glendale, about to crest a ridge and catch up with the trail ( h-3 hike in thunderbird park )

I hear what sounds like a heard of buffalo heading straight at me. " What the...." I think to myself. Then I see 4 or 5 Javelina running at me.

So there I am scratching my last will and testament on a rock with a sharp stick, thinking to myself - Well I can offer them my water.

They veer off and head down the hill, more scared of me, them I of them.

Now I would have had a heart attack, but I was too busy dying from fright!

I never thought those little hills in the middle of the burbs could support creatures such as these. Never would I have imagined seeing such a sight!

I think Ill hike a different route and maby even stay on the trails for awhile.

I hate to fuel Hooli's ammo bag but my cousins used to ride pigs on the farm as kids
Keep in mind cows are pretty boring and we didn't have horses!

I came across at least ten or more in the western Gila Range last week. I must be nuts cause I wasn't frightned, actually kinda excited trying to capture a photo. I took several photos. Then as I was putting away the camera one jumped outta nowhere and caught a glimpse.
http://hikearizona.com/phoZOOM.php?PID= ... ll&D1=teva

After doing a little research, Ive learned that these things are not meat eaters and are actually quite harmless, unless provoked.

Aside from this, lizards and jack rabbits were my only sightings.

Now that I look back on it, it was pretty cool!

teva wrote:my cousins used to ride pigs on the farm as kids

That must have been a major experience with the Javalina Cakewalk.

My first job ever was on a farm. The farmer had all kinds of pigs and the friday evening entertainment was riding them. First his perpetually drunk friend would come over and we would all go down to the barn with the 300 lb sows. The farmer would always try to make us drink and water glass half full of vodka before he would pay us. I was stubborn and would only take a beer but my friend Dwane would drink the vodka. Then we would jump on the pigs back and grab the ears. Wow, what an E ticket ride. Sometimes one or two of us would get hurt.

Hey it was a farm. You have to make your own entertainment.

BoyNhisDog wrote:Hey it was a farm. You have to make your own entertainment.

Yeah I won't go into hotwire tag!
(electric fence)

What I know about javalina, besides the fact that they stink really bad...

They like to charge things, and their eyesight is really bad. If they hear you moving around, they will charge you. If you stay still and make no noise they will probably vear off or stop the charge. If you run, they will probably continue to charge towards the sound and you will think they are chasing you.
Thus, if they charge you, stay still. If they don't stop, run to the left or right just before they get to you. Also, remember that you are top of the food chain and if you start yelling and hollaring they'll most likely run away.

Not to seem know-it-allish, but aren't they peccaries, not pigs?
Maybe the real farm boys can explain the difference.

GTG

GTG is correct, javelina are not pigs, they're peccaries. Pecarries (Dicotylidae, or also Tayassuidae) and Pigs (Suidae) are two distinct families of the Order of Artiodactyla.

-Professor Mike

I have had many encounters with Peccaries in Arizona, especially around and south of the Dromedaries along the Gila. One time I was in the midst of a rather large herd of 15 to 20 that my brother had spooked. The trigger spring on my Python was broken, but I wouldn't have shot one anyway because I will not kill what I will not eat, and that is some stinky meat. Haven't hunted for the last ten years. Please don't post your favorite Javelina recipe. No matter how it is prepared it leaves a lingering bitter aftertaste in my mouth. I was discussing this very topic with landsinaz at the Chile Shindig. Why would you want to cook something and hide the real taste of it?

http://www.gf.state.az.us/frames/fishwild/hntjavel.htm

Cakewalk, I have seen coyotes in that area by Thunderbird park and even some running along the 101 right close to 59th ave. Is there a game refuge somewhere back in that hiking area of yours? In 1985 I bought a new home at the base of Lookout Mountain. There was a family of coyotes up there on the side of the mountain and you would see them quite often. As the area filled up with homes they disappeared. Urban Sprawl; it's just not as quick as a fire and it doesn't grow back like it was.

GTG wrote:Not to seem know-it-allish, but aren't they peccaries, not pigs?
Maybe the real farm boys can explain the difference.

GTG

Sure, You can ride pigs, You can't ride peccaries. 8O

Glen - you can too ride pecaries - you just have to be real small and very, very agile...

KZ:

Yeah there is a small area right at the base of the hill on 59th. Some kind of wetland area... Not real sure what it is....

The wildlife is quickly getting squeezed out of the area. There are houses going up out there at the very base of the hills..

With all apologies to Teva, and any other Okies out there...

Completely by coincedence, my dad emailed me this cartoon today.
For obvious reasons, it fits pefectly with this topic....

( 2018-10-29 removed dead link )

Yeah that's my cousins!

Although the Ozarks were taller than the Rockies will ever be... they aren't that big anymore

I was around 16 when I had my first run in with a Javelina. I lived in Blue Hills, near Dewey, when one day my girlfriend and I were walking back home from a hike in the foothills of the Bradshaw. Movement caught my eyes and it was a single Javelina crashing over rocks and grass toward us!
One can only imagine my eyes popping out, jaws wide open with surprise and trying to figure out what to do. So I told my girlfriend to get behind me and get as far as possible away from me without running. I picked up a poor excuse of a stick to use a weapon, knowing full well it would snap over the beast's head with the first whack and stood my ground with my right knee shaking from fear. Bracing for impact I knew was coming, the Javelina just stop!!! Four feet away from me!!! Give or take. He snorted, perhaps testing the air to see if I was friend or foe, I do not know, other than I was freaking out. And then....he just prances up to me, stops, snorts, and started rubbing his side on my leg! It was then I realized this Javelina may be the pet I had heard about circulating in Blue Hills and in fact it was, because months later I delivered newspaper to the place he lived, and everyday he and a pack of dogs would greet me when I dropped of the paper.

Hey Abe.... Thats a cool story...


Thanx for sharing it. :P