A collaborative study published in PLOS ONE, documents the periodic disappearance (and reappearance) of the white-lipped peccary at nine locations in South and Central America. The authors say the population fluctuations may represent the first documented case of natural population cyclicity in a Neotropical mammal.
The study is led by the Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasilia, and is co-authored by more than 20 other organizations, including the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS).
White-lipped peccary (Tayassu fishermen) are pig-like ungulate mammals native to the tropical forests of Central and South America. They are extremely social, forming large herds of up to hundreds of animals. Peccary researchers from Mexico to the Amazon have been intrigued by the sudden disappearance of white-lipped peccary populations over large areas, as well as by reports of previous extinctions and subsequent reappearances.
The study shows that over 20- to 30-year population cycles, extinctions represent the seven- to twelve-year mark when peccaries disappear. These can occur simultaneously on regional and possibly continent-wide spatial scales of up to 10,000–5 million square kilometers (3,861–1.9 million sq mi).
The study suggests that the mysterious extinctions may be caused by overgrowing populations, and crashes are likely to be eased by various causes, including disease outbreaks, and highlights the need for more long-term studies to better understand the causes.
The ground-breaking study, which relies on collaboration and detective work to document 43 different disappearances at 38 sites in nine countries, also includes 88 years of commercial and subsistence harvest data from the Amazon. It confirms that this poorly known species, which is so ecologically important to the Neotropical forests, as well as culturally and socio-economically crucial to the indigenous peoples and local communities living in these forests, has large-scale and long-term population cycles .
From an ecological perspective, white-lipped peccaryis are considered a keystone species as they affect forest regeneration and plant populations, especially palms, through seed and food predation and leaf litter turnover. They are also considered ecological engineers through the maintenance and expansion of forest licks and mineral walls, which benefit many other species of wildlife. In addition, they are the favorite prey of the Latin American predator, the jaguar (Panther ounces). When the peccary disappears, the jaguar population decreases.
White-lipped peckaries are extremely important from a socio-cultural perspective, as a preferred subsistence hunting target for indigenous peoples and riverine and rural communities throughout their range. This importance is reflected in the stories, oral history and art of many indigenous peoples of Latin America. Indeed, some indigenous peoples have stories that refer to the disappearance and reappearance of the peccary.
The main author of the study, Dr. Jose Fragoso of the Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade de Brasilia, Brasilia, DF, Brazil, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia (INPA/MCTIC), Manaus, Brazil, and the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, said: “This analysis highlights the importance of very large and continuous natural areas that enable the population dynamics of the source sink and ensure recolonization and persistence of the local population over time and space for perhaps keystone species for Neotropical forests. It also highlights how working with indigenous peoples can help solve mysteries in biology. Our work also solves a key question in tropical ecology, what happens to white-lipped pelicans when they disappear.”
Senior author Dr. Mariana Altricher, from the Department of Environmental Studies, Prescott College, Arizona, believes that “this work sheds light on an enduring mystery in tropical forests. It will help guide future research and conservation efforts in the tropics. Most importantly, we must continue to monitor peccary populations, especially in fragmented protected areas.”
Dr. Harald Beck, co-chair of the IUCN Peccary Specialist Group and one of the authors of the study, said: “This unique publication has a large-scale focus (Central and South America), used historical and current data, and methods state-of-the-art modeling technology to answer critical ecological questions about spatiotemporal population fluctuations of the dominant Neotropical mammal, the white-lipped peccary. The paper will guide future research in the Neotropics, as well as influence conservation efforts and policies.
Dr. Rob Wallace, Senior Conservation Scientist at WCS and one of the study’s co-authors said: “WCS remains committed to landscape-scale conservation in a series of nature’s strongholds in Latin America, which is essential for diverse species such as. white-lipped peccary, especially considering these population cycles. Understanding these natural population cycles will be crucial to the interpretation of our population monitoring efforts, which represent the gold standard for assessing our conservation impact, not only for white-lipped pelicans themselves as a keystone species and socio-cultural, but also for the other wildlife they co-exist with – lowland tapir, collared peccaries, leaf litter biodiversity, a number of palm species, plant diversity and, of course, the jaguar.
The authors of the study were: Jose ? MV Fragoso1,2,3*, The second? P. Antunes2,4Kirsten M. Silvius5Peter AL Constantine4Galo Zapata-Rios6Hani R. El Bizri7,8Richard E. Bodmer9,10Micaela Way11,12Benoit de Thoisy13Robert B. Wallace14Thais Q. Morcatty8,15Peter Major16,17Cecile Richard-Hansen18Mathew T. Hallett19,20,21Rafael A. Reyna-Hurtado22H. Harald Beck23The loneliness of busts24,25Alexine Keuroghlian26Alessandra Nava27Olga L. Montenegro28Ennio Painkow Net29Mariana Altrichter30.
1 Department of Zoology, University of Brasilia, Brasilia, DF, Brazil
2 National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA/MCTIC), Manaus, Brazil
3 California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, USA
4 RedeFauna–Research Network on the Diversity, Conservation and Use of Amazonian Fauna, Tefe ?, Amazonas, Brazil
5 Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
6 Wildlife Conservation Society – Ecuador Program, Quito, Ecuador
7 Department of Natural Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
8 Institute for Sustainable Development Mamiraua ?, Tefe ?, Amazonas, Brazil
9 Museum of Amazonian Cultures-Fundamazonia, Iquitos, Loreto, Peru ?
10 DICE, School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
11 Chemical Project, Roosevelt 4344, CABA, Resistencia, Argentina
12 EDGE of Existence—Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, England, UK
13 NGO Kwata, Cayenne, French Guiana
14 Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx, New York, USA
15 Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom
16 Department of Animal Health and Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain
17 Museum of Indigenous Cultures of the Amazon, Loreto, Iquitos, Peru
18 French Biodiversity Office ?-DRAS/SCGEEUMREcoFoG, Kourou, France
19 Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA
20 Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, USA
21 Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Bogor, Indonesia
22 College of the Southern Border – Campeche Unit, Campeche, Campeche, Mexico
23 Department of Biological Sciences, Towson University, Towson, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
24 Salta Environment and Sustainable Development Secretariat, Santiago del Estero, Salta, Argentina
25 Foundation? n Argentine Biodiversity, Suipacha, Argentina
26 Peccary Project/IUCN/SSC Peccary Specialist Group, Campo Grande, Brazil
27 Fiocruz ILMD Amazon, Adriano ? polis, Manaus, Amazon, Brazil
28 Institute of Natural Sciences, National University of Colombia, Bogota?, Colombia
29 Tropical Sustainability Institute–TSI, Carapicu ??ba, Sao Paulo, Brazil
30 Faculty of Environmental Studies, Prescott College, Prescott, Arizona, USA