A golf course in Arizona has been repeatedly attacked by an unruly pack of wild pigs.
Javelinas, originally from South America but now seen in southwestern US states, bear long teeth and use them to tear up the ground to find juicy earthworms sitting just underneath the grass.
Some of these chaotic creatures have decided to target the previously pristine and well-preserved greenery of the Seven Canyons Golf Club.
For staff the attacks are no laughing matter, as the destruction is racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The golf club’s general manager, Dave Bisbee, estimates that the club will spend between $150,000 and $300,000 in labour costs by the time the javelinas leave their site for the season, as well as a further $50,000 to $75,000 on additional seed, turf growth blankets and other restorative equipment, CNNreports.
“When you come upon them and see them, it’s like The Tasmanian devil,” Mr Bisbee told CNN.
“There’s turf flying all over the place, there’s grunting, there’s fighting. For rather small creatures, they do a lot of damage.”
The pigs usually arrive in the dark when no one is around to source their late-night meal.
“They can rototill some turf with those teeth … it is really disturbing when you see it,” Mr Bisbee said.
The manager told CNNthat he has had to deal with these pesky javelinas around six or seven times in his 20 years at the club and has seen the animals’ chaos-inducing activities increase after Arizona went through a lengthy dry season this year.
When temperatures drop, however, the worms fall deeper into the soil, meaning that the javelinas can no longer smell their dinner.
As the state moves into a more wintery climate, the golf course may not have to clean up after the beasts for another season, the outlet states.
As for a long-term strategy, it is illegal under state law to kill javelina, so the staff have opted to try and plug as many holes in their borders to try and keep the animals out.
Despite the havoc these notorious creatures have caused, they have found viral success on social media.
Emily Casey, an assistant superintendent at the Seven Canyon’s Golf Club, started to document the destruction that the animals have left behind since around September.
“Come along with me on my carnage (I mean course) check this morning,” she wrote in a post.
“What should be one of the most beautiful golf courses in the country is being destroyed by herds of javelina. If anyone has a contact in AZ state govt that can help us find a solution please pass it along.”
Ms Casey videoed the countless patches of destruction the javelina left in their wake, as she toured the course on her buggy.
Her clip gained 32.9 million views.
“If anything, this at least has put us in front of millions of people who didn’t know where Seven Canyons was,” Mr Bisbee said to CNN.
“And they’re a little more educated on what javelina[s] are!”
