Spatial ecology of a herd of white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) in Belize using GPS telemetry: challenges and preliminary results

Abstract

The Maya Mountains are a heavily forested mountain range in Belize and Guatemala supporting high levels of biodiversity. Due to environmental degradation around the range, it is in danger of becoming isolated from the largest contiguous forest in Central America. Forest connectivity in the area is vital for white-lipped peccaries. These social ungulates roam in herds of up to 300 individuals and need large forested areas to sustain populations. The species has not previously been studied in Belize and its distribution, population size, herd dynamics and movement patterns are unknown for the country. We aimed to estimate home range size and investigate movement patterns of the species in southern Belize. We present a preliminary 4-month data set from a herd of ca. 60 animals tracked by an individual fitted with a GPS satellite collar. We evaluated collar performance, habitat preference and movement characteristics, and estimated home range size using a semi-variogram approach, suited for sparse and irregular data. Collar performance was poor, with 38 % of the data not reaching the satellite, and a GPS fix success rate of 11.6 % for the data that did reach the satellite. The semivariogram home range size was 55.2 km 2 . We observed a maximum daily movement distance of 3.8 km, and a preferential use of forest habitat over shrubland, savannah and cropland. We calculated a density of 1.09 ind/km 2 and make an informed guess of close to 100 herds in the broad-leaf forests of the Maya Mountains. Our study highlights some of the challenges faced when collaring white-lipped peccaries, as well as the performance of GPS-collars in tropical forests. It also provides a first glimpse of the home range and movement behaviour of white-lipped peccaries in Belize.Las Montañas Maya son una cadena montañosa densamente forestada situada entre Belice y Guatemala que presenta altos niveles de biodiversidad. La degradación medioambiental amenaza con dejarla aislada del gran bosque Centro Americano contiguo. El pecarí de labios blancos es un ungulado social que viaja en manadas de hasta 300 individuos y que necesita grandes extensiones forestales para mantener sus poblaciones, por lo que la conectividad entre bosques es esencial para la especie. No existen estudios sobre esta especie en Belice, de manera que su distribución, tamaño de población y patrones de movimiento son desconocidos para este país. El objetivo del estudio fue de estimar el ámbito hogareño y de investigar patrones de movimiento de esta especie en el sur de Belice. Este estudio presenta datos preliminares de una manda de aproximadamente 60 individuos obtenidos a partir de un individuo que fue marcado con un collar equipado con GPS. Se investigó el rendimiento del collar, uso preferencial de hábitat y patrones de movimiento, y se estimó el ámbito hogareños usando un análisis de semivariograma. El rendimiento del collar fue pobre puesto que un 38 % de los datos no alcanzaron el satélite, mientras que la tasa de éxito de adquisición de localizaciones de las que si alcanza...

Ranging ecology and resource selection of white‐lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari) in the world's largest tropical agricultural frontier

“…(2019) estimated an 100% MCP of only ~8 km 2 for Darién National Park in Panamá, but these authors monitored WLPs using GPS collars and reported home ranges of 25–59 km 2 using AKDE. These estimates are similar to those in other tropical and subtropical forest studies using the same approach, such as 49 (32–69) km 2 and 34 (25–45) km 2 for a male and a female in French Guiana, respectively (Richard‐Hansen et al., 2019); 55 (34–81) km 2 in Belize (Hofman et al., 2016), and our average estimates of 57.7 km 2 from the five individuals we tracked.…”

Medium and large-sized mammals of a private protected wetland in the Cerrado-Amazon biological corridor, Brazil

“…However, collared peccary (solitary individuals or herds reaching ~15 individuals) was recorded only at two camera-trap stations (S1 and S2), which are near to reserve buildings and the border with a cattle ranch, while white-lipped peccary (always in herds reaching ~80 individuals) has been recorded at four camera-trap stations (S4, S5, S6, and S8) in isolated areas under low disturbance. White-lipped peccaries are described to have a seasonally varied home range much larger than the stable collared peccaries home range (Peres, 1996;Fragoso, 1998;Keuroghlian et al, 2004;Hofman et al, 2016), which can explain the slightly higher number of white-lipped peccaries records. Although studies have reported niche overlap between these species, collared peccaries forage at a different time period to avoid competition with white-lipped peccaries (Desbiez et al, 2009;Galetti et al, 2015).…”

Habitat connectivity of three threatened ungulate species in the high plains native savanna of northern South America

“…Herrera et al 2017). Fundamental areas that facilitate the movement across savanna matrix for these species can traverse relatively long distances, e.g., tapirs greater than 5000 meters(Medici 2010) or intermediate distances > 4000 for peccary and deer(Hofman et al 2016;Roden-Reynolds et al 2022). For example, during the rainy season, the riparian forests of the savanna rivers are ooded, causing wildlife to move to higher elevations where the M. exuosa formations are located (Mosquera-Guerra et al 2018).…”