JAVELINA (COLLARED PECARY)
(Tayassu tajacu)

Javelina photographed in an enclosure at the Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona

The collared peccary resembles a wild boar but is unrelated to the pigs. It has a heavily built body covered with coarse hair, a heavy snout, and a distinct collar of light-coloured hair around the neck. These animals are common in the southern desert regions of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where they frequent the shrubby areas and canyons. They favour the saguaro-paloverde regions and mixed shrub grassland. They roam the desert in loose groups of 8 to 12 (but up to 30) individuals, each group being led by an older sow. They are territorial.

The favourite food is prickly pear and other fleshy cacti - they eat vast amounts of prickly pear pads and are undeterred by the spines. They also dig up roots and bulbs.

Javelina photographed in the wild in Big Bend National Monument, South Texas