Javelina

Javelina are not pigs. They look pig-adjacent at a glance, but Pecari tajacu — the collared peccary — belongs to the family Tayassuidae, not Suidae. The two lineages split somewhere on the order of 30-40 million years ago. Peccaries have three toes on the hind foot instead of four, a single chamber stomach with two compartments rather than a true ruminant gut, a dorsal scent gland that pigs lack, and interlocking canines that grind against each other and stay sharp without ever erupting like a boar tusk. Getting this taxonomy right matters because every state that hunts them classifies them as native big game, not as feral hogs.

Native range in the United States runs across the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, with the species continuing south through Mexico, Central America, and into northern Argentina. They live in family bands — "squadrons" in some agency literature — typically 6-12 animals, sometimes larger. They are diurnal in cool weather and crepuscular when summer temperatures climb, and they hold tight to brush and prickly-pear country where their primary forage grows.

For hunters, javelina are a desert pursuit — spot-and-stalk in glassable country, often paired with a bowhunting season early in the calendar year. The animals are small (35-55 lbs typical), eyesight is mediocre, the sense of smell is sharp, and a herd that gets nervous will scatter in every direction simultaneously.