Javelinas, also known as collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu), are the only peccary species native to North America. Despite their porcine appearance, peccaries (Family Tayassuidae) are not pigs (Family Suidae). However, this superficial resemblance between javelinas and introduced feral hogs (Sus scrofa), they are often confused in Texas. Feral hogs are responsible for millions of dollars in agricultural and property damages each year and contribute to a great deal of environmental degradation (Timmons n.d.). Understanding how the ecological context of Texas contributes to this confusion is important for feral hog management plans that can inadvertently affect local javelina populations. This poster analyzes the spatial distribution of javelinas and hogs in Texas, US.
I'm Adam Johnson, an anthropologist teaching at Northwest Vista College while completing my PhD at UTSA after teaching as a lecturer at UNCC for 3 years.
My work engages with the ways in which landscapes mediate multispecies relations. I hope to work with the Cofán, an Indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon and will be visiting in the summer of 2020 to develop a research plan, collaborating with local people in Zábalo.
I have also completed ethnographic research with Drag Queens in North Carolina, science studies research on the ways scientific discourse maintains racial categories and thus inequality, and primate research, studying the ways in which chimpanzees and rhesus macaques construct and make use of space.
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