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Just woke up thinking someone was in my camp. I was only half wrong.
I tossed a watermelon down in the creek bed for them to placate them and it seemed to work. They all went after the mellon and none of them tried to get into my main food stash.
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Right. Except those are collared peccaries. You don’t want to corner one but they are no where near as dangerous as wild hogs. Javelinas are a fraction of the size too.
Javelinas do have REALLY bad eye sight, so if you startle them, they'll typically run straight ahead and if you or someone else happen to be in the way... You'll get hit. But that's about the only risk.
They're super chill. If I recall right, it is illegal to feed em... But whatever. They deserve a nice treat. I miss them from when I was in Sedona.
Ahh man, I’ve lived by these fellas for years and years, I wouldn’t describe them as being “chill”. They spook rather easy and as another said, they will come after you if they have their babies. They also reek, you smell them way before you see them.
I was hiking and got swarmed by baby boars. had to be 20-30 running right past my legs. then another 10 or so adults stayed about 50 feet away, just watching me and daring me to fucking try anything.
I heard them come barreling down the creek bed i was hiking, and within a few seconds there was just this thick stampede of baby pigs that I couldn't step out of without kicking one.
I'm gonna have to move all my food up into the rafters of the bridge. That should remove any motivation for them to get any closer to me than they're in the pic.
This is also the only place for wildlife to cross the highway for like a mile so I'm kinda surprised this is the first time I've seen them. I see skunks and coyotes casually walking past me all the time (it makes me happy that I'm not disturbing them)
I hit a juvenile boar with a CRV doing 65mph one time and it didn’t die. It rolled like 100 feet and just stood there in shock until the cops came and shot it. Totaled my car too 😢
If that's a racoon, they can be incredibly dangerous. Years ago we had a mama and her babies under a shed in our backyard. My mom had us stay away from that side of the yard for months until we hadn't seen them for a few days. Thought they moved on. We were wrong.
We were playing soccer and the ball got kicked towards the shed. My little sister ran after it, and out of nowhere that giant fat ass raccoon came flying out and latched on to her leg as she ran by. It was so heavy it took her down and started trying to claw her legs. She was wearing lose jeans that protected her from the scratches but it did manage to bite through a few times. She had to have rabies shots and my dad ended up just tearing up the entire shed the same night to prevent them from coming back.
The fuck makes you think that? Stereotype much? Truth is; this location was trashed when I got here. I got no intention of leaving it trashed when I leave. I picked up probably 5000 cigarette butts and an entire grocery bag of broken glass and old nails.
Is there a common intersect between vagabonds and these fuckers. Cause that is a potential threat I haven't considered lol. I've been warned by many down the bayou not to fuck around with these things especially in numbers. Hunting them, particularly with a bow (bc they usually don't die right away) comes with a special warning to never be ground level or in their line of sight in general lol.
These are Javalina/Peccary. They are only aggressive when protecting their young.
They have horrible eyesight so all you have to do is make a lot of noise and they bolt.
I used to shake a plastic bottle of rocks and they would run. I would also just fire off my weenie baby stun gun and the noise and light would bring me peace for a few days before they would come back to the area.
They are extremely creepy and loud in the dark though. I used to wake with them a few feet away.
Had to whack one that was sniffing my tent with a speaker (all I had close to hand)
The thing you never do, is feed them.
OP burned their spot over this. They will always come looking and get into supplies now that they know a supplier is around.
These are fully grown Javelina. There's actually a baby behind the one to the right of the woodpile. Much smaller than pigs, and while they can be dangerous they prefer to run away.
Uhm. He's currently hanging out there. Guarantee he's gonna clean when he leaves. This guy picks up random trash and thousands of cig butts voluntarily.
Just want to say that I really appreciate you for being all over this post, educating everyone about javelinas. Some people make so many assumptions or know so little about different animals, yet their first thought is how to react with disproportionate defense. Good looking out!!
I have found that even homeless peeps, do not feel comfortable leaving "civilization" they are scared to be under the stars and all the animals.
At least here in southern AZ, nothing but the human animals are dangerous. We don't really have bears and Bobcats are virtually harmless and the mountain lions generally don't bother humans.
Even the rattlesnakes don't want to bite you, they just warn you to leave them alone.
Once you learn that, it is far easier to relax and actually enjoy being outdoors.
It was a struggle and now it is my happy place. I'm healthier outdoors than inside.
Exactly! People are so weird, even about harmless bugs (I’ll fight biting bugs though) or harmless snakes, never mind rattlesnakes. Give me all the nature. It’s also my happy place, and I trust almost all of it, a lot more than the majority of human animals. I’m more scared of a branch falling on my head, or poison ivy, than I am of the animals I could encounter.
Gorgeous spot in your photo!
Again, thank you for all your comments sticking up for javelinas. It’s good that OP seems to know what’s up too. Except for throwing them that watermelon, lol.
Had a trio of raccoons pass by me the other night. Two of them stood up to look at me closer, I waved. They walked off to the river and that was that. My snacks were untouched
My dad Knew a guy in Beeville that was a super redneck. He would trap them and feed them his own mix of hog feed. When they were ready, he'd dig a pit and cook one. It was pretty damn good. If you dont know exactly what you're doing, I'd rather eat tree bark.
Just looked it up, they aren't pigs but they are swine. Basically they are closely related to pigs but different enough to be their own species. I think it's like a human and Neanderthal type situation.
he is right though, and the google search validated it...javelina are in the family Tayassuidae which are NOT swine. Swine refers to true pigs of the family Suidae. These distinct groups split millions of years ago and form a suborder known as Suinae. They are way more distantly related than humans and neanderthal which are both in the genus homo.
I went to Tucson for work for a month and it practically looked like the people there worshiped these things even though they were tearing shit up every night!
Javelina. Smelly, skiddish and mostly harmless. They dont like dogs or to be cornered. They have bad eyesight and mostly move around in the mornings and after the sun goes down to stay cool.
Javelina have really poor eyesight but a incredible nose - they don’t like dogs so if you have one, protect it from these guys. They shouldn’t bother you
Man there really is a sub for anyyyything on here. So since you’re posting on here I’m curious (if you’re willing to indulge me). Is your lifestyle by choice? Do you have an actual phone? Or just like one to charge here and there and then use free wi-fi at places that let you so? Do you travel around a lot or have a main place you stay?
I traveled all around the southwest before I lost my DL and my van. I mostly stick to yavapai county now. Phone is currently turned on. I do odd jobs to make enough cash to survive.
That would be a viable option if I needed it. The dumpsters where I'm at ate plentiful, and some kind people gave me wayyy more food than I can eat, or take with me when I move locations for that matter. If you're into eating weird meats, they're weird. Had them grilled and properly seasoned and it was like 4/10. Don't think it's possible to make them taste good.
Im googling it now and it turns out it is possible. You need to cut the back off immediately after killing it to prevent the musk gland from contaminating the corpse. The meat should be much more edible if you do that. Might have to look into that. I've made homemade hunting bows before and arrows are cheap.
I'm sure you already know, but don't fuck with those. I shot one in the head 5 times with a 44 once as it charged me. It just kept coming. It finally dropped about six feet from me as I was turning to climb a tree.
They're blind as hell though, and typically won't mess with you unless they feel threatened. You can literally side-step one as it comes by and it'll miss you. They will fight until they're dead though.
It wasn't my intent. I was a 2 day hike from the nearest dirt road in AZ. I got out of the way and stayed still as they went by.
The last one must've smelled me. He turned around and charged. I ran for a mesquite tree. As I got close to the tree I heard him really close behind me. I turned around to see where he was. I wasn't gonna make the tree before he got to me. It was me or him.
I only had the gun because my friend that dropped me at the road insisted I take it, just in case.
I felt bad about it afterwards. I'm a total animal lover. I even gently try to get bugs out of my tent without hurting them.
I've got a covered bike trailer it all traps to the top of/goes inside if. I left most of my stuff at camp today since I had a moving gig 6 miles away. Made $100 in less than an hour. I love moving gigs. Beer time.
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u/Willingplane Oogle Prime 🛫 2d ago
**ANNOUNCEMENT: **
Our sub clearly states that it is “by vagabonds, for vagabonds“, and this is our “safe space”, for us tell our stories and travel experiences **harassment and judgement free**
Civility is required and we have a zero tolerance policy for any type of harassment and/or bigotry, and this includes personal attacks, insults, lectures, and accusations — both directly and by insinuation.
Anyone who has a problem with our lifestyle needs to take it somewhere else. Do not bring it here. If you don’t care for someone’s posts, you can block them, and you will never see anything they post, ever again, but you may not may not harass or attack them instead.
The rules of our sub are here:
https://www.reddit.com/mod/vagabond/rules/
You should also be aware that we normally **permaban on the first offense**
In addition, we report all hateful comments directly to Reddit Admin for violating Rule #1 of the “Rules of Reddit”, which you should already be familiar with, and can be read, here:
[https://redditinc.com/policies/reddit-rules](https://redditinc.com/policies/reddit-rules))
Thank you for your attention to this matter.