A feral pig might not be everyone's first choice for a pet, but Tex has become a favourite at Willeroo Station after he was caught by the manager's son.
While it's not unusual to see a poddy calf being hand-reared at a Northern Territory cattle station, a pet feral pig is certainly a lot rarer.
Jack Bowman caught the piglet when he was roaming around near the homestead, 120 kilometres south-west of Katherine.
"I was just following the creekline down behind the house and saw a mob of small piglets, I decided to chase after them and I caught him," he said.
"I had to chase after him, then I fed him and made him tame.
"He was probably only 20 centimetres long when I first caught him, he was very small."
Jack said Tex wasn't too hard to catch as "they're pretty slow when they're small".
Tex the piglet now sports his own leather collar and a Willeroo Station ear tag as he wanders around the homestead, following station workers as they walk between their quarters and the kitchen.
As for taming a wild pig, Jack said "you just keep holding them and feeding them, and they learn that you're their food source".
Tex is not the first pet pig Jack has raised, another got so big it was given away to another family.
"I've had a number of pet pigs, the first one was Crackle, she is up at Adelaide River now, she would be nearly 160 kilograms now," Jack said.
When asked if Tex would get that heavy, Jack said "probably not, he might be Christmas lunch".
Jack said feral pigs were a common sight at Willeroo Station, and did a lot of damage to the environment and station infrastructure.
"We are right next to the Gregory National Park, so we get a fair few pigs and donkeys as well," he said.
"They are pests … [because] they root up the ground and wreck our fences."
Willeroo Station was recently sold to Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting and the Bowman family will be moving on after 17 years at the property.
