How many species of Peccaries are there in Costa Rica?

Well, the family Tayassuidae has two species in this country, let’s talk about them. 

 

First Part.

 

Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu)

 

Names: Also known as the javelina, because of its javelin-like tasks.

Tayassu comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means taya gnawer, Taya are bulbs of plants in the philodendron family. Taiacu may be derived from the same. Spanish: Saino.

Range: Arizona and Texas in the United States to northern Argentina; from sea level to over 3,000 m (10,000 ft) at Cerro de la Muerte in Costa Rica; in or near forest or dense second growth, often near water.

Size: 90 cm, 19 kg (35 in., 40 Ibs).

Similar species: White-lipped peccary. The coloration of collared peccaries can vary with place and season. In Arizona, for example, the darker outer portion of their banded hair falls off at the beginning of summer, leaving the coat thinner and paler and thus more appropriate for the heat.

Natural history: Collared peccaries are active by day or night. In hot areas such as Guanacaste, or in areas where they have been hunted, they tend to be more active from late afternoon to early morning.

Their diet includes fruits, seeds, roots, tubers, leaves, and some animal food. The diet of collared peccaries in Costa Rica has been studied most extensively in the seasonally dry forests of Palo Verde by Michael McCoy and colleagues. Analysis of more than 100 scats showed that the diet of collared peccaries at Palo Verde varies dramatically over the course of a year. During the late wet season, there is an abundance of fruits and seeds relished by the peccaries, such as hog plums (Spondias mombin, illustrated on p. 162), moridero (Eugenia salamensis), and nances (Byrsonima crassifolia). In the early dry season, fruits become scarce and the peccaries switch to a diet apparently consisting mostly of roots, tubers, and vines, such as vines of the wild grape Cissus rhombifolia. The fruit famine is broken in February with the appearance of guácimo fruits (Guazuma ulmifolia, illustrated below), which the peccaries eat almost exclusively during that month.

In the late dry season, guácimo fruits become scarcer, and the peccaries start eating others, especially those of raintrees (Pithecellobium saman) and Guanacaste trees (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) In the early wet season, the peccaries start to eat more fibrous foods such as roots and tubers again, and rummage around the bases of guácimo and rain trees for old seeds left over from the dry-season crop.In wetter habitats, important foods include fruits and seeds in the palm, sapote, and pea families. A peculiar food used by collared peccaries in wet habitats in Costa Rica is the terrestrial philodendron known as dumb cane (Dieffenbachia)

Almost no other vertebrates, or even insects, feed on dumb cane, for its sap contains high quantities of toxic calcium oxalate crystals, which affect metabolism and can destroy mammals’ kidneys. Peccaries probably break down such toxins by fermenting them in their digestive tracts. (The peccary’s ability to stomach such chemicals may have played a key role in enabling the species to establish itself in the arid southwest of the United States, where the prickly pear cactus Opuntia, another oxalic acid-laden plant, forms a major part of the peccary’s diet.) Peccaries may select such plants because they are rich in certain minerals. The peccary and dumb cane may even enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship. Dumb cane reproduces vegetatively, so even small pieces of stem that are broken off and trampled can reroot and grow into new plants; the dense clumps of this plant that are common in wet, lowland forests may be created in part by marauding peccaries.Animal prey has not been recorded as an important food in most areas where collared peccaries have been studied, including Guanacaste.

In the Amazon, however, collared peccaries have been found to eat significant quantities of insects, snails, worms, and millipedes, and even some small lizards, frogs, birds, and rodents; and in captivity, they readily accept meat. Since collared peccaries dig a lot, they might feed more on worms than is apparent from direct observation or fecal and stomach analyses, as white-lipped peccaries do in Corcovado.

Collared peccaries live in herds containing from a few to 30 individuals. The herds studied by McCoy in Guanacaste used home ranges averaging 118 ha (290 A). They tended to stay in smaller areas for much of the year, however, ranging further only when food was scarce in the early wet season and, especially, in the early dry season. During these periods of fruit scarcity, the peccaries would also take fewer and shorter rests. Preferred resting sites in Guanacaste were cool spots in rock or dirt caves or beneath fallen trees. In some areas, collared peccary herds split into smaller groups during periods of food scarcity in order to spread out and make use of smaller food patches. Unlike white-lipped peccaries, collared peccaries are territorial, defending home ranges that overlap little, if at all, with those of neighboring herds. Their much smaller home ranges probably wouldn’t provide for more than one herd, but are also easier to defend.

Collared peccaries are generally shy and unlikely to attack people. When startled by humans or other potential predators, they charge away and often try to hide in logs or holes. If cornered, they can inflict deep bites.

One to five, but usually two chestnut- or tan-colored young are born after a gestation period of just under five months. In Guanacaste, most young are born in March and April. Young can run after a few hours and join the herd a day after birth. If the herd is startled and there is a stampede,young ones not strong enough to keep up sit motionless and are left behind.

Once danger has passed, they call back their mother. Young nurses for six to eight weeks and become independent after two to three months. Once weaned, they may habitually follow an adult other than their mother.

Females reach sexual maturity when they are a little less than one year old.

Captives can live 24 years, but of over 400 wild peccaries examined in Arizona, less than 5% were older than eight, and none were older than 16.

Sounds: Purrs (mostly by young), low grunts, and doglike barks help herd members stay together or find one another when separated; growls and tooth clacks are threats; loud «woofs» are alarm calls, typically made as the herd flees.

Conservation: Collared peccaries travel in single file, leaving trails that are conspicuous to hunters. They are hunted for their meat and hides, and sometimes as agricultural pests. They can damage melon, rice, corn, and root crops such as yuca, camote, and tiquisque. They do not roam far from suitable habitat to do so, however. At La Selva, researcher Isa Torrealba found that yuca crops bordering the protected area are pillaged by collared peccaries frequently, but those more than 400 m (440 yards) away are untouched. Collared peccaries are important seed predators; they may also disperse some seeds by spitting them out or passing them whole. Collared peccaries do not need such large expanses of pristine habitat as do white-lipped peccaries, and since they travel in smaller herds, they are less vulnerable to hunting; they are common in most protected areas.

Reference: The Natural History of Costa Rican Mammals by Mark Wainwright.