Javelina or Jabalina or Javalina or Mexican hog (collared peccary)

The collared peccary wasa familiar sight to Texans of the 19th century. The animal is popularly called “javelina” or ““jabalina” or “javalina” or “Mexican hog.”
 
Sports teams from Texas A&M University-Kingsville are called the Javelinas.
 
   
Wikipedia: Peccary
Peccaries (also known as javelinas, by the Portuguese name javali and Spanish jabalí or pecarí) are medium-sized mammals of the family Tayassuidae. Peccaries are members of the artiodactyl suborder Suina, as are swine (Suidae) and hippopotami (Hippopotamidae). They are found in the southwestern area of North America and throughout Central and South America. Peccaries usually measure between 90 and 130 cm in length (3 to 4 feet), and a full-grown adult usually weighs between about 20 and 40 kilograms (44 to 88 pounds).

People often confuse peccaries, which are found in the Americas, with pigs which originated in Afro-Eurasia, especially since some domestic pigs brought by European settlers have escaped over the years and now run wild as razorback hogs in many parts of the United States.
 
Characteristics
Peccaries are medium-sized animals, with a strong superficial resemblance to pigs. Like pigs, they have a snout ending in a cartilagenous disc, and eyes that are small relative to their head. Also like pigs, they use only the middle two digits for walking, although, unlike pigs, the other toes may be altogether absent. Their stomach is non-ruminating, although it has three chambers, and is more complex than that of pigs.
 
Peccaries are omnivores, and will eat small animals, although their preferred food consists of roots, grass, seeds, and fruit. One of the ways to tell apart pigs and peccaries is the shape of the canine tooth, or tusk. In European pigs the tusk is long and curves around on itself, whereas in peccaries, the tusk is short and straight. The jaws and tusks of peccaries are adapted for crushing hard seeds and slicing into plant roots, and they also use their tusks for defense.
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Species
Today there are four living species of peccary, found from the southwestern United States through Central America and into South America and Trinidad.
 
The Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu) occurs from the southwestern United States into South America and the island of Trinidad. They are found in all kinds of habitats, from dry arid scrublands to humid tropical rainforests. They are sometimes called the “musk hog” because of their strong odor. In some areas of the southwestern United States they have become habituated to human beings and live in relative harmony with them in such areas as the suburbs of cities where there are still areas of brush and undergrowth to move through. They are generally found in squadrons of eight to 15 animals of various ages. They will defend themselves if they feel threatened but otherwise tend to ignore human beings. They defend themselves with their long tusks, which sharpen themselves whenever the mouth opens or closes.
 
Throughout the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, collared peccaries are known as javelinas. They are often seen around people’s houses, with herds of them sometimes seen walking across driveways or porches. In some neighborhoods, they even live in backyards.
   
Wikipedia: Texas A&M University—Kingsville
Texas A&M University–Kingsville (formerly Texas A&I University) is a U.S. national university with a multicultural student body that is 62 percent Hispanic and includes students from 35 states and 43 foreign countries. The university has nationally recognized programs in engineering, agriculture, wildlife music and the sciences and is known for developing the nation’s first doctoral degree in bilingual education. Founded in 1925 as South Texas State Teachers College, the university’s name change in 1929 to Texas College of Arts and Industries (A&I) signaled the broadening of its mission. A 1967 name change to Texas A&I University marked another transition. The university became a member of The Texas A&M University System in 1989 and changed names in September 1993.
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Nickname: Javelinas (informally “Hoggies”)
Mascot: Porky the Javelina
   
suite101.com
Some Unusual College and University Nicknames
© John K. Davis
Dec 2, 2008
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Texas A&M - Kingsville Javelinas
A Javelina (pronounced hah-vow-lee-nah) is an actual animal and not a type of javelin. It is a peccary, a pig-like animal that originated in South America, but has since migrated into the American Southwest. Sometimes called a “musk hog” because of its strong odor, the creature is about 36 inches in length and 20 inches high. It has a pair of short, razor-sharp tusks that are used for both defense and for rooting out food.
 
According to their website, A&M-Kingsville has used this nickname since the school’s opening in 1925 and a caged Javelina has appeared at all home athletic events since 1969. At one time, the mascots were allowed to run loose on campus. This practice was discontinued in 1929 when the university president was bitten by one that proved to be rabid.
   
Greg Lasley - Nature Photography
Within the Unites States, the Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu) is fairly common in many areas of south and west Texas as well as parts of Arizona and New Mexico. It is commonly called “Javelina” in Texas and elsewhere. Its range extends southward through Central America and into South America all the way to northern Argentina. It is truly a widespread animal which uses many different habitats from forests to deserts. It is a distant cousin of pigs, feral hogs, etc., but is not really considered a pig, despite its pig-like snout. The two shots at the top of this page were taken in February, 2002, in Kenedy Co., Texas, with a Canon EOS 1V and EF 500mm F/4 L IS lens on Fuji Velvia. The shot of the walking animal below was from the same location in 2000. The shot of the animals at a water hole was taken in Starr Co., Texas in September, 1995, with a Canon T-90 and Sigma 500mm F/4.5 lens on Fuji Sensia. Scroll down for more shots.
   
El Sauz Ranch (Raymondville, TX)
Javelina (Collared Peccary)
Javelina (Tayassu tajacu)
Early Spanish explorers called these small, piglike mammals “javelina.” Derived from the Spanish word for javelin it is obvious that they were referring to the sharp, nearly straight canines that characterize this species.
 
Collared peccary top-out at about 60 pounds. Dark, bristly hair covers the body, and a distinct white stripe (collar) runs across the shoulders. Collared peccaries are herd animals. A distinct rump gland exudes an odiferous musk that is used to mark a herd’s home range as well as communicate within the herd.
 
Collared Peccary evolved in the rainforests of South America. Over time the species migrated north across Central America, through Mexico and into the United States. Arizona, New Mexico and Texas are the only states in the U.S. that have collared peccary. Of those three states Texas boasts the largest population.
 
Although collared peccary are classified as game animals, there is no closed season for collared peccary in South Texas, which means this species is available for year-round hunting excursions.
 
Dictionary of American Regional English
jabalina n Also havalena, jabali, javalina, javelin(a) [Span jabali wild boar, jabalina wild sow] esp TX
The collared peccary (Dicotyles tajacu). Also called Mexican hog, musk hog, pig, wild hog, wild pig
1822 in 1858 Dewees Letters TX 25 ceTX, Bears are very plenty, but we are obliged to use great care when hunting for them, lest the havalenas (meaniung the peccary) kill our dogs.
1892 Duval Young Explorers 96, Cudjo came rushing out with half a dozen Mexican hogs or “javalinas” in hot pursuit of him.
1892 Dialect Notes 1.191 TX, Jabali: wild boar, peccary.
1923 U.S. Dept. Ag. Farmers’ Bulletin 1375.11 AZ, No open season:..peccary or javelina (wild hog), bobwhite, grouse,..and all shore birds.
1940 Writers’ Program Guide TX 26, The muskhog or collared peccary, a vicious wild hog locally called javelina, is numerous from the Edwards Plateau to the Rio Grande, and also in the Big Bend.
1966 DARE [Qu. P32,..Other kinds of wild animals) infs TX11, 19, NM13, (...) TX31, Javelin.
   
Google Books
Romance of Natural History:
Or, Wild Scenes and Wild Hunters
By C. W. Webber
London: T. Nelson and Sons
1853
Pg. 335:
HUNTING PECCARIES IN TEXAS—A BEAR-HUNT. 
 
Google Books
October 1853, The New York Journal, pg. 196:
A WILD-HOG HUNT IN TEXAS.
BY MAYNE REID.
BY the Texans, what we call the wild hog is called the Peccary (dicotyles). Of this animal there are two disctinct species known. The “collared peccary” (dicotyles tacquatus), and the “white-lipped (dicotyles labiatus).
 
Google Books
Natural History:
A Manual of Zoology for Schools, Colleges, and the General Reader
By Sanborn Tenney
Eighth Edition
New York, NY: Charles Scribner & Co.
1870
Pg. 91:
The Texas or Collared Peccary, or Mexican Hog, D. torquatus, Cuv., is about three feet long, weighs fifty or sixty pounds, is of a general gray color with a whitish band stretching obliquely from the angle of the lower jaw over the shoulders.
 
Google Books

Or, Two Thousand Miles in Texas on Horseback
By H. F. McDanield and N. A. Taylor
New York, NY: A. S. Barnes & Company
1877
Pg. 165:
The Texans sometimes call these animals javalinas, the Mexican name, but generally the musk hog. They sometimes enter a cultivated field and play havoc. Dogs are mortally afraid of them and cannot be induced to attack them. The Texans say they are the most dangerous animals in the country—panthers, bears, wolves and lions being as nothing compared to them in courage and ferocity. If a man on foot encounters them, his only hope is to climb a tree, and they will then hang round him sometimes for hours. They are probably the gamest rascals on earth, and as I studied their cranial development, I could not help thinking that there is truth in phrenology. Murderous and other ferocious villains are generally largely developed about the ears and neck, and these rascals have this murderous mark to an inordinate degree. It is said that they are always ready for a fight, and becoming once engaged, they know no retreat.
 
The writers on natural history do not know everything of which they write. They say that the peccary is found only in South America, and this I know not to be so. It is quite common all over Western Texas, particularly in regions that are thinly settled, or not settled at all.
   
10 August 1889, St. Louis (MO) Republic, “Thrilling Passage From a Texas Ranchman’s Diary,” pg. 9:
...now making chase after a “gavalina” or peccary.
   
Google Books
Through Texas:
A Series of Interesting Letters
By Walter B. Stevens
Special Correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat
1892
Pg. 69:
Then comes along the peccary, or javalina, the wild hog of Texas, industriously digs a larger and deeper hole under the same mesquite bush and eats the squirrel’s acorns, passing on with a snort of defiance to capital both alien and domestic.
   
27 August 1894, Galveston (TX) Daily News, pg. 8, col. 5:
THE TEXAS PECCARY.
A Tenderfoot’s Experience with a
Bunch of “Javelinahs” in the
Llano Country.
In the War the Pugnacious Peccary Act in Concert and Their Charge Is Instan-
taneous and Deadly.
   
Texas A&M University Libraries - Digital
Title:  Evaluation of collared peccary translocations in the Texas Hill Country
Author:  Porter, Brad Alan, 1980-
Abstract:  Historically, the collared peccary (Tayassu tajacu) occurred throughout much of Texas including the northern portion of the Texas Hill Country. Remaining peccary populations were extirpated in much of their former range due to over harvest and habitat loss. In 2004, efforts to restore peccary populations to the Texas Hill Country began when Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologists translocated 29 collared peccaries into the 2,157 ha, Mason Mountain Wildlife Management Area (MMWMA). I evaluated the success of peccary translocations for mixed and intact family groups by comparing survival, ranges, and dispersal of translocated, radio-tagged peccaries. In addition, I evaluated two release methods (soft versus hard) to determine differences in population demographics. I found that peccary ranges and dispersal patterns did not differ (P > 0.05) between intact and mixed groups or release method (soft versus hard). However, I did find that peccary fidelity to release sites was greater for soft releases of family groups. Individuals from the soft release group dispersed the shortest distance and stayed on MMWMA. Only 2 individuals from the hard releases stayed on MMWMA while the rest (19 individuals) dispersed 4-8 km. Future peccary translocations should emphasize the release method employed and family structure of individuals released to improve translocation effectiveness in establishing populations in target areas.
Publisher:  Texas A&M University
Subject:  collared peccary
translocation
ear-tag transmitter
soft release
URI:  http://handle.tamu.edu/1969.1/5803 
Date:  2007-09-17