NECTAR
COMPUTERS
A SORRY REPUTATION
by Jim Sage
Servicing West Texas with comprehensive
and experienced support since 2003
202 N 11th & Ave E, Alpine Texas • www.nectarcomputers.com
432 837 3021 • Support Cell: 432 386 7811 • Mark Hannan, Owner
Skinner & Lara, P.C.
Certified Public Accountants
Drawing by Walle Conoly
610 E Holland Avenue
Alpine, TX 79830
Phone (432) 837-5861
Fax (432) 837-5516
HARPER ’ S
Hardware
Presidio’s favorite hardware store for almost a century
tools • plumbing supplies • home & garden
Monday - Saturday 7:30 am to 6 pm
701 O’Reilly Street • Presidio • 432-229-3256
12
S
hortly after moving to the South Double
Diamond, I went for a walk, returning as it
got dark. About halfway home, I encoun-
tered a small band of javelinas in the road. I had
read that they could be dangerous, so I began
whistling. Nothing happened. I picked up rocks
and threw them. Nothing happened. I shouted,
and they finally moved off the road, but not very
far. I continued walking, but being alone in the
semi-darkness, one large boar looked more like a
fighting bull from Spain than a small pig that
could not weigh over 60 pounds. This was my first
encounter with javelinas.
Having now lived in the South Double
Diamond for eight years, I have had many
encounters with javelinas. They stand by the
kitchen door and eat tunas from the prickly pear,
red juice dripping from the corners of their
mouths. They are not aggressive, and, contrary to
many stories, they do no damage. They have
never damaged a single plant, nor do they root in
the flowerbed as they are supposed to do*.
The javelina or collared peccary is a native of
the Chihuahuan and Sonoran deserts and is the
only wild, native, pig-like animal found in the
United States. I say pig-like, as they are related to
pigs, sharing a common ancestry dating back sev-
eral million years, but there are enough anatomi-
cal differences that they are placed in separate
families. Pigs and hippopotamuses are their clos-
est relations.
The javelinas are so called because of their
razor-sharp tusks. (Javelina is Spanish for javelin or
spear.) The tusks are about an inch and a half long
and point down rather than up like many wild
pigs. Although javelinas are not dangerous when
left alone, their tusks can be quite deadly. I have
known of two dogs whose demise testifies to this.
Javelinas always travel in bands, usually of six
to 12 members, although as many as 50 have been
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2012
seen together. They eat, sleep and forage together,
and the babies grow up and die in the same band.
No javelina is accepted into a band unless it is
born there.
Javelinas cannot cool themselves by panting, so
they tend to live where there is brush or trees and
water. In the heat of the day they bed down in the
shade and forage when it is cooler.
They forage for roots, bulbs, nuts, berries, fruit
and grass, but their mainstays are the agave and
the prickly pear. How they can eat the pad of a
prickly pear with those wicked spines, I will never
understand.
Herds have a dominance hierarchy, with a
large male as the dominant figure and the remain-
der of the order seemingly determined by size.
The dominant male does all of the breeding.
Breeding occurs throughout the year, depending
upon rainfall. More young are born in rainy years,
and females usually have twins. The female sepa-
rates herself from the band while giving birth so
the young won’t be killed.
The javelinas have a rather sorry reputation.
They have a strong musk gland on the top of their
rump and, when excited, give off a powerful odor.
They have small beady eyes and are very near-
sighted. They are rather barrel-shaped with short
legs, so they have none of the sleekness or beauty
of deer or antelopes. Their hair is bristly and dark
gray, but mostly they just look like a pig. They are
favorites for hunters to kill. But rather than consid-
ering javelinas stinking, ugly, dangerous beasts, I
consider them one more bonus for living in the
magnificent Chihuahuan Desert.
*Since I wrote this essay, I have had to revise my state-
ment on damage done to plants. Jave linas have made an
occasional attack on the garden.