Turkey Vulture and Mystery Critter

Doug still isn't fully recovered from his surgery of six weeks ago, and he hasn't really felt like hitting the trails on this visit to the Smokies. We did a couple of short hikes yesterday, but he wasn't really feeling the desire to walk today. It was a little too chilly to indulge in our other favorite activity, which is sitting in the woods or beside a river and reading a good book. So we went for a drive.

We thought we'd drive out to Douglas Dam, where we could park at the overlook and enjoy the view while sitting in our vehicle to read. When we reached the overlook, though, we saw that the restrooms were closed for repairs. Well, we weren't going to be able to stay there long without the availability of a restroom, so we decided to drive back to town and, from there, on into the national park.

Douglas Dam

A storm had come through the area last night, so we drove to one of the campgrounds, just to see if the river had flooded it and forced the campers out as it sometimes does in that area. The only damage we saw, though, was a couple of downed trees.

We did, however, manage to capture a photo of a turkey vulture in a tree. We had seen him enjoying a tasty snack of roadkill, but he flew into the tree when we came along. The photo lacks good detail because of the distance, but I just had to share this charming fellow with you.

Turkey Vulture

After the experience with the turkey vulture, we went to a favorite picnic area, parked the van, and enjoyed a short nap. My nap was shorter than Doug's, and I was reading when I heard a grunting noise that sounded for all the world like a pig right next to the van. I looked up from my book in time to see an animal running toward the river at top speed. It was small-to-medium size, brownish, with stripes similar to the stripes on a chipmunk.

I woke Doug, calling "Doug...a pig, a pig!" Well, he caught only a glimpse of the mystery critter before it disappeared, and that glimpse was without the aid of his glasses. Of course, being without glasses doesn't mean the same for Doug as it would for me. I need glasses to find my glasses. He, on the other hand, is naturally far sighted and can manage quite well without them.

We got out and walked around, looking for the animal itself or at least for its tracks, but we found nothing. That momentary glimpse we had of its fleeing back hadn't looked like any wild pig we had ever imagined, but the sound was so pig-like that I couldn't imagine what else it could have been.

So, when we got back to our hotel tonight, I went online and searched for information on wild pigs in the Smoky Mountains. I learned that they are usually smaller than other wild pigs, that the young have "longitudinal" stripes until they are about four months old, and that the piglets are usually weaned between the third and fourth months. Even though the piglets are then independent of the sow, they usually stay in the family group for about a year.

So I'm guessing that the one we saw, if indeed that's what we saw, was at the upper end of the stripe-sporting stage and past the weaning stage. But I'm at a loss as to why it appeared to be out there alone. Unfortunately, the whole thing happened so fast that I don't even have a blurry image to share with you.