Javelina

Javelina or the collard peccary are common in grasslands and mountains of the boot heel of New Mexico and neighboring Arizona.  Below is a short 5 minute introduction to these unique animals produced by the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon.  Javelina are common visitors to the Painted Pony Resort and are frequently observed in the front garden area.

A Story of Life in New Mexico: Leftovers

The ongoing battle with the local Javelina population came to an end for one old male this spring who now is a permanent part of the property.  While cleaning the Painted Pony Resort after a set of guests left one of the cleaning crew pointed out a javelina on the property over by the hot tub.  Wandering toward him while yelling to encourage him to move along, he surprisingly did not respond.  Walking right up to him and he just stood there.  No threat display, no raised hackles, no aggressive behavior, he just stood there gazing back at me.  An old male, completely gray, he had seen better days.  Javelina have approached before while out in the field, but normally they run at the sight or smell of a human.  Approaching within 5 feet he looked up at me and fell over, his little feet moving like some weird cartoon character trying to run on air, followed by a cessation of motion.  I realize I may not be the handsomest man on the planet but this was the first time I had scared the wildlife, isn't supposed to be the other way around?  Walking back to get the tractor, the Javelina carcass was loaded and carried to the south end of the property where it was buried.  The plan was to bury the carcass then retrieve the skeleton at a later date and reassemble the complete Javelina skeleton for placement on the landscape as something unexpected for guests to find while out walking (something perhaps only a Biologist would think of doing).  Unfortunately the carcass was not buried deep enough and the local coyote population found the site, dug it up, and made a meal of him.  In the process most of the skeleton was scattered and missing, and only the skull was recovered.  So now the skull will become part of a large landscape art piece planned for an arroyo at the southeast corner of the property about the origin of barbwire fences.  Nothing is wasted here in the bubble.

Thinking it was safe to go back in the Water

No sign of Javelina for several weeks, I concluded they had moved on to greener pastures (and gardens) for forage but I was wrong.  Like a bad sequel there was fresh evidence of Javelina in the front garden area.  Found the remains of a newly planted agave eaten this morning while pruning in the front garden.  Checking the location of their former hangout there was no sign of the culprits but fresh tracks and some partially dried scat indicated they had been through the area recently.  Fortunately the other 2 newly planted agaves were intact and there was no new damage to the yuccas.  So it is time to start patrolling the area again and perhaps put the barbwire tee-pees back up around some of the tastier plants.

Javelina left overs

Living with the Wildlife in New Mexico

Living in the high New Mexican desert has plenty of advantages but with life there are occasional downsides.  With wide open spaces and an extremely low human population density the other species that share the local environment are up close and personal frequently doing damage in their daily browsing.

First it was the cattle (an introduced species), congregating at the entrance and jumping the cattle guard.  That issue was resolved with fencing the new property and building walls along the road.  This left only the road leading to the Painted Pony Resort for cattle to wander along.  With no feed or water they have chosen to stay elsewhere.  Then large holes began to appear around the buildings foundations and along irrigation lines, even several new trees were dug out.  Although no animal was ever observed digging (the damage occurred at night), the best guess was a badger had moved in.  It dug up numerous irrigation lines (presumably hearing flowing water) and made a general mess of things.  Cayenne pepper proved to remedy that problem.  Purchased from My Spice Sage, liberal amounts sprinkled around the diggings appeared to deter the mystery animal.  Now a new species has arrived, Javelina.  On several occasions a small herd of 6 Javelina were observed on the property and while entertaining for guests, the low rainfall this winter means less available natural forage and the Javelina have expanded their range.  Reports from the neighbors, a mile west, reported the Javelina were eating all the available succulents and cactus on their property indicating the problem was not limited to the estate.

So the animals took to raiding the front planting area as well as other spots on the estate.  First, all the spineless prickly pear planted last year disappeared from along the driveway.  The animals just hopped over the chicken wire placed to keep the rabbits out and devoured each cactus  (a local bobcat observed this spring by guests was keeping the rabbits in check).  Then upon coming outside one morning this heard of Javelina were all standing around finishing off all the Agave that were raised for use at the front entrance.  Finally, they moved onto the front planting area.  They were caught in the act several times and they rapidly moved off when approached, but they returned.  So out came the Cayenne pepper again in the hopes they would find it so unappealing they would move on.  The pepper had some effect and many plants survived foraging attempts, but the Javelina would always manage to get one plant (in this case a small species of Yucca).  So it was time for physical barriers, t-posts and barbwire.  Each tender and appealing yucca was surrounded with t-posts and barbwire strung starting several inches off the ground.  The idea was to create a physical barrier in addition to the olfactory barrier (cayenne pepper) to discourage the Javelina from browsing in the planting area and destroying the vegetation.  

Javelina leftovers

One solution to protect plants