Thursday, March 19, 2009

Creatures of the night

My thoughts at 2:10am:

Why did I just wake up? Man, I'm hungry. What should I go eat? Some cereal sounds good, or maybe a piece of raisin toast. Why is the kitchen so far away?! What is that noise? Is it raining? No, of course not, we're in the desert. Maybe the sprinklers? Maybe it's Simon. Yes, it is probably him but what in the world is he doing? He must be in the kitchen getting some snacks. 

2:20am

Is he still in the kitchen? It sure sounds like he's eating potato chips. That's an odd midnight snack. Wait a second, that noise is coming from outside. Let's have a look. What is that out there? Am I dreaming or is there a field of massive pigs snorting and fighting below my window? This is crazy. I need a closer look. 

I took my cereal out to the balcony to watch these intriguing creatures graze, snort, randomly sprint and sniff each other. What a bizarre experience!

I now realize these wild boars, or "Javalina" are as common in Tucson as squirrels are back home. Thankfully they only feast on small animals, grass and grains so if I come across a pack of them on the trail, I should be safe....

The piggies returned this afternoon, in broad daylight and I was able to snap a couple pics to prove to the others that they DO exist and were not pigs "with wings" in my dreams!





5 comments:

Wendy said...

really unbelievable. That's whole herd.
Very funny blog entry Lauren. A delight to read.

Angi Axmann said...

That is so funny, I am from Germany so I have also never seen them or had contact with them but when I was camping during a stage race in phoenix, I woke up at night and they had surrounded our tent!!! And I guess they can't see very well and just sniff and end up running into things...luckily they didn't run into our tent:-)

Fe-lady said...

I found out last week on my bike ride that they LOVE Power Harvest bars.... so look out!
(And they CAN be very aggressive with young in tow-their eyesight is really bad and react by biting. They have really big teeth! Males have tusks!)

Unknown said...

When I was in Arizona a few years ago I ran into a pack of these at night while I was walking my dog. They were coming towards us and huffing and puffing and my dog started to tuck in behind me and I realized he wasn't going to be any help. I didn't know what to do so I just decided to charge and I ran directly towards them and at the last moment they moved to the side and started angry squealing. I've never been so scared.

Later I forgot the name and when I was back in Canada I was telling my friends about how I ran into a pack of Jabeneros and everything thought I was full of it.

Gregwh said...

When you see them think "Bacon and sausage" and show no fear, you should be fine. But what do I know, I have never seen a wild boar or javelina.