Recently some animal has been eating the few remaining leaves of chard in the raised garden beds in our backyard in Flagstaff. Also, an ornamental cabbage got munched over the weekend. It was time to find out who the raider was. I borrowed a motion-detection camera and set it up in the backyard.
The first night was a bust...no visitors. However, the second day... success! The first raider was the neighbor's dog at 3:26 in the afternoon. But at 1:52 a.m. a javelina or peccary appeared. Then a minute later, a second javelina came into view. Looks like they had a little disagreement about the chard and one left. The remaining javelina dug and ate for a few more minutes before disappearing into the night.
A 1964 Arizona Game & Fish Department publication shows javelina distribution to be south of the Mogollon Rim and not even to Camp Verde to the northwest. There is a single record of javelina in Walnut Canyon in 1954. By the 1970s, javelina were common in the Verde Valley and enjoying digging up gardens in Sedona and elsewhere. In March of 2001, I saw a small herd along the Grand Canyon Railway a few miles south of the Grand Canyon. And we have had sporadic sightings in Kachina Village over the last decade. But a number of neighbors have reported the little guys this last summer and fall so maybe they are now permanent residents in Flagstaff.
By the way, don't call them pigs. Although superficially resembling little porkers, javelina are in the Family Tayassuidae (peccaries) and pigs including hogs are in the Family Suidae. The families are distinct from each other in their dentition and other anatomical features. Also, pigs are originally Old World species and javelina are New World.
So be careful if you are out wandering around your garden in the dark. No telling what else is out there.
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