A New Baby in Town....

I went back to Calallen, Texas and drove to the park in hopes of seeing a newborn fawn from the last time I was there spying the pregnant doe with her buck. There wasn't a deer to be seen the whole time I was there. I didn't stick around very long 'cause the hot sun was doing a number on my sweat glands! I did, however, stop and climbed the hawk watch tower because it was before 9 a.m. when they are now blocking it off to no more than the eight people [for the virus pandemic] that do the annual hawk watch for the next three months. Anyway, when I was up there, I can see the watering hole for the wildlife [it's two small ponds with a drip system that runs year 'round]. And while I was there I did see a baby critter!! One of the few javelina families was there, munching on the grass, rooting in the surrounding mud,  and drinking from the ponds. One youngster was very young...still wobbly on its feet, and when the sun hit its pelt just right, it still had a tinge of red like a newborn  [see #4 and #7 in the group below].  In fact, the offspring, like a horse baby is a foal,  javelina babies are called "reds".

Now, some from the many times I've posted photos of the javelinas seen here in Texas, comments are of wild hogs or wild boars. They ARE NOT either. In fact they are a whole family [species] on their own. The only one in the family as a matter of fact. Now, what makes them what they are and not related to pigs is that they have only ONE dew claw unlike a pig which have two dew claws on the hoof, and they have the tell-tale light colored line of hair on their shoulder plus more facts, but the dew claw and the light collar hair is good to know for IDing. Remember they are not hogs or boars or pigs. The family name is Peccary.  A pig [or hog - boar] is of the family Suidae.

Now, THIS is the time you want to stay clear of them...they are murderous and killers when they have young near by. And, it was time for the group of record keepers to show up...at 9 a.m. sharp, the peccaries all left into the bushes to be gone the rest of the day...like they knew the clock!!