I promised all of you that we would head back from Australia and I didn’t lie.  Today we land back into North America and the first animal we see when we get off the plane is a Collared Peccary.  I know it may seem weird to see a collared peccary hanging around in a city but they are actually well adapted to living in the suburbs.  Anyone know where in North America we just landed? We landed somewhere in Southwestern USA! Perhaps, Texas, Arizona or New Mexico.  The Collared Peccary can be found in Central and South America as well.

The collared peccary is often referred to as a pig, however, it is no longer classed in the pig family.  I still think it looks like a pig though! Anyone have ideas what this pig-like animal eats? Well, I can tell you that this little piggy doesn’t eat roast beef.  Instead it prefers to forage on fruit, roots, grasses, insects as well as small reptiles. One of the other main sources of food for this cute, little peccary happens to be prickly pears.  It may be a tough food item to swallow but the prickly pear has a very high water content which is crucial for an animal living in Southwestern USA.

The nice thing about viewing the collared peccary is the fact that you will get to see several at one time.  They actually like to form a band of 6 to 12 animals although a larger group of 50 has also been recorded. Interestingly enough, these bands have a hierarchy in which a male collared peccary will usually be dominant while the rest of the “pecking” order is determined by size. Only the old and the wounded animals don’t band up since they prefer to die in solitude.  Other than dying though, the group does everything together.

Collared Peccary Fast Fact: The collared peccary is also known as the “Javelina” which is Spanish for javelin or spear.  They received this secondary name due to their razor sharp tusks.

Another week of Wild Facts is in the books!  Have a great weekend everyone and I will see you back here first thing Monday morning.