Two lost hikers took refuge in a tree from what they thought was a ‘growling’ feral pig before calling the police, park authorities said.
However, it turned out to be the sound of cars passing over rumble strips on a nearby road.
San Antonio Police Department received a call from a woman in the Government Canyon State Park in Texas who said that a wild pig had been following and growling at her.
Park officers searched her last reported location but were unable to locate her.
The park officer then rang the woman to reassure her help was on the way and asked her to send her location using her mobile phone.
While on the phone, the woman warned the park officer that the hog was nearby and urged him to hurry.
After hiking to the location, the officer found the woman and a man hiding in a tree. The woman told him she had last heard the pig a few minutes before he arrived.
The officer then heard a car drive over the rumble strips on a nearby road and noticed that the pair’s body language changed.
The officer asked if they believed the noise they just heard was a pig and both nodded. He then told them that what they had heard was just a car passing over rumble strips.
“The lost hikers were reassured by the officer that the unknown can be scary and their reaction surprisingly common,” a statement from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department reads.
Hogs were introduced to Texas by Spanish explorers over 300 years ago and an estimated 1.5m now live in the state.
The park authority warns that the animal’s “razor sharp tusks combined with their lightning speed” can cause serious injury.
