WAYWARD JAVELINA

HARLLINGEN — A javelina wandering through the Emerald Lake area was captured without incident Tuesday by city animal control officers.

The young animal was resting when animal control officers approached it and the javelina was subdued with a catch pole, Albert Galvan, a supervisor in the Health Department, said.

“It was running on the streets,” he said.

It is the second javelina captured in Harlingen in about six weeks, he said. The other javelina was caught in the neighborhood behind the Post Office on New Combes Highway.

Both animals were released unharmed near the low-water bridge on the Arroyo Colorado near the Port of Harlingen, about four miles outside the city, Galvan said.

Norma Fitzgerald, who lives in the neighborhood, said the two animal control officers sent by the city quickly captured the animal.

“I was trying to keep my kids from running out there,” she said. She said she was worried that the animal might be dangerous.

Galvan said javelinas can be very aggressive and dangerous and have sharp tusks.

Fitzgerald said one of the officers who picked up the javelina said high water in the nearby Arroyo Colorado might have caused the intruder to wander into the neighborhood near Emerald Lake.

But Galvan said there have been no more calls about wildlife inside the city than usual. His department often gets calls about opossums, raccoons, deer, tarantulas and snakes. But the
calls haven’t increased because of flooding in the arroyo, he said.