No animal is more symbolic of the arid regions of Texas than the collared peccary more commonly known as javelina. An animal enshrouded in mystery, these medium-sized mammals have a reputation that precedes them.

    For starters, they have an identity crisis. Lumped in with feral hogs as a species of swine, they are not pigs in the sense we think of pigs.

    According to biologists with Texas A&M University at Kingsville, a “javelina is not a pig, a feral hog or a wild boar. Although similar in appearance to a pig, it is a collared peccary.”

    Both javelinas and pigs are members of the order artiodactyla and the suborder suiformes and share a common ancestry.  Due to key anatomical and genetic differences, however taxonomists placed them in separate families: javelina in tayassuidae and pigs in suidae.

    Texas A&M Kingsville biologists said the confusion probably started as soon as European explorers arrived in the New World.

    “The javelina is native to the Western Hemisphere, while true pigs developed in the Eastern Hemisphere. Distinguishing characteristics include size. Javelinas are small and compact, weighing from 30 to 55 pounds, while adult feral hogs can reach 100 pounds or more.

    Javelinas are a grizzled brown and black with a white band of coarse hair, its ‘collar,’ around the neck. Feral hogs come in a variety of colors and combinations of colors. Less obvious differences include that the javelina has four-hoofed toes on its front feet, but only three-hoofed toes on the hind feet, where the outer dewclaw present on a pig is absent in javelinas. Javelinas also have shorter tails and their canine teeth or ‘tusks’ grow vertically rather than away from the face.”

    For years there has been a popular rumor going around that javelinas are actually rodents and there is another they are kin to raccoons but as you can see that is not true.

    In fact, in middle school one of our book lessons described javelinas as a type of rodent that had more in common with capybaras, which are the world’s largest rodent. (Think a giant nutria without a tail).  Anyone who has spent time around these pint-sized peccaries knows they definitely have more in common with pigs than a giant rat.

    Javelinas weigh from 30-60 pounds and stand about 1.5 feet tall at maturity. When seen at a distance they look much larger than this but when you get close you can see just how small they are.  These tiny pig like animals range from southern Texas across the deserts to Arizona, throughout Mexico and into Brazil.

    Javelinas as most Texans call them are territorial and live in tight knit groups. The name “javelina” comes from the word Spanish word “javelin” which they used to describe the teeth of the animal. Peccary comes from a Brazilian tribal word meaning “many paths through the woods”.

    I always thought the collared peccary ranged into southern Mexico and then the large white-lipped peccary took over going into South America but I learned firsthand this was not true while traveling to Venezuela to fish Lake Guri for peacock bass, payara and piranha in 1999.

    I was so excited to encounter all of the amazing wildlife present in that country’s rainforests. After arriving at a lodge on the edge of the lake in the middle of the night, I took a good rest and awakened to all kinds of amazing sounds.

    My imagination soared as I walked outside with my camera to see what kinds of exotic animals I might see. Would it be a tapir or sloth or maybe I would be one of the lucky few to see a jaguar, which by the way is my favorite of all animals.

    As soon as I walked out the door what do I see looking me eye to eye. A whitetail deer! Talk about feel ripped off as I had traveled thousands of miles and see something I can view in my hometown. Then across the way by a garden I saw what I thought were white-lipped peccaries. I stealthily made my way toward them and quickly realized they were plain old javelinas just as if I had hunted in South Texas.