Sometimes the news comes to you.
Employees of KZTV found three javelinas in their back, fenced-in parking lot Monday before the critters ran under a fence and away from the area. At last check, animal control had not caught them.
“You have to jump up and you have to find the javelinas,” KZTV producer Lisa Leal, who recorded video of the javelinas on her cell phone, said. “Especially, when they’re this close to the station.”
The sighting marks two javelina appearances in Downtown Corpus Christi in less than a week’s time. A woman spotted three of the animals at the corner of Chaparral and Peoples Streets on Thursday.
“That’s not a typical habitat for javelinas,” David Hewitt, the executive director of the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute says. “So, there’s some reason why they’re down there.”
The institute is at Texas A&M Kingsville, where the mascot is the javelina. Hewitt says the institute has studied the animal in the past.
“They’re our school mascot, so that gives us a little bit of a stake in them,” he said.
There’s still not a definitive explanation for the javelinas being downtown. Hewitt lent credence to one popular theory, that favorable conditions have helped the javelina population grow to the point where small groups of them are looking for new places to live. Javelinas that already live near the refineries along the Corpus Christi Shipping Channel may use well-established corridors like railroad tracks to get all the way to the cusp of downtown.
“All of the areas already have javelina in them, so these ones that are out looking for a home get bumped along and move down the railroad tracks and end up in downtown,” Hewitt said.
Javelinas downtown pose problems for themselves and people. When cornered, Hewitt says javelinas have attacked people which is why he urges you not to provoke them. The animals themselves are at risk as well, primarily of getting hit by cars. Leal points out one more javelina problem.
“They stink,” she said. “They were stinky, smelly, nasty little javelinas.”
