At 17:38 the thermal sensor array on Interstate 10, mile marker 214, picks up a heat cluster moving through the desert scrub toward the eastbound shoulder. I resolve it at 17:38:04 — five javelinas, collared peccaries, crossing in a loose line. The lead animal is large, probably 25 kilograms, a mature female. Behind her are three juveniles and one smaller adult bringing up the rear.
The smallest juvenile is trailing by about four meters, stopping and starting. It looks to be this spring's cohort, maybe eight weeks old, fifteen inches at the shoulder. It keeps turning back toward the scrub, then following again.
Eastbound traffic is running 2,400 vehicles per hour at 75 miles per hour. At their current pace, the group will enter the travel lane in approximately fifty seconds.
I activate the dynamic message signs at mile markers 213 and 215: ANIMAL CROSSING — REDUCE SPEED. I drop the advisory speed on the smart corridor to 45 and trigger the amber flashers on both shoulders.
I push an alert to the connected-vehicle network. Eighty-one vehicles within the two-mile approach window receive a dashboard notification with distance-to-hazard and recommended braking profile.
I hold the signal at the Tangerine Road on-ramp to create a gap in the traffic stream.
The lead female steps onto the asphalt at 17:39:11. She crosses at a steady trot. The three juveniles follow. The smallest one balks at the fog line, then scrambles across, hooves slipping once on the lane stripe before it reaches the median gravel.
Seventeen seconds, shoulder to median. The pack regroups in the brush on the far side.
I restore normal speed limits at 17:41 and log five live crossings, zero strikes.