Part II: Species Accounts268
(Mayer & Wetzel 1987; Altrichter et al. 2011; Taber et al. 2011).
The white-lipped peccary occurs in habitats ranging from sea
level to up to 2000 m in altitude including the eastern slopes
of the Andes (Mayer & Wetzel 1987; Sowls 1997). Typically it
prefers to be near waterbodies such as rivers, lakes, or water
holes (Figure 25.3), especially during the dry season (Sowls
1997; Keuroghlian & Eaton 2008a; Reyna-Hurtado et al. 2015).
Because this species lives in big cohesive groups with extensive
home ranges, it requires large continuous area of undisturbed
habitats (Sowls 1997; Fragoso 1998; Reyna-Hurtado et al. 2009;
Taber et al. 2011; Altrichter et al. 2012; Keuroghlian et al. 2015).
White-lipped peccaries are good swimmers and cross rivers
frequently (Figure 25.4).Movements and Home Range
The white-lipped peccary travels large distances and long-term
home-range data indicate non-random seasonal movements
(Keuroghlian et al. 2004; Keuroghlian & Eaton 2008a). Key
environmental variables determining movements and home
range have been identified to be food availability and water
sources (Altrichter et al. 2001b; Keuroghlian & Eaton 2008a,
2008b; Reyna-Hurtado et al. 2009, 2012). Analyses of the white-
lipped peccary’ s time budget (Altrichter & Almeida 2002) and
the nutritional content of its diet (Lopez et al. 2006) suggest that
low resource availability and poor nutritional quality of food
affect their behaviour and probably induce them to travel long
distances in search of food at certain times of the year. However,
home-range size can also vary according to habitat, climate, and
habitat fragmentation. Within the drier Cerrado ecosystem, themean home range was 86.59 km^2 (95 per cent minimum convex
polygon, MCP) in an isolated National Park (Jácomo et al. 2013).
In the semi-arid Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, the mean home-
range size of four herds was 66.45 km^2 (100 per cent MCP)
(Reyna-Hurtado et al. 2009). Keuroghlian et al. (2004) observed
a herd home range of 29.51 km^2 (100 per cent MCP) for four
subherds in an isolated Atlantic Forest fragment of 21.78 km^2. In
the Brazilian Amazon, the mean home range of two herds was
57.41 km^2 (100 per cent MCP; Fragoso 1998, 2004), and Carrillo
et al. (2002) reported a herd home-range size of 35.33 km^2
(100 per cent MCP) for a single herd composed of several
subherds in Costa Rica. In the wetlands of the Pantanal, two
white-lipped peccary herds were compared, and home-range
area was 51 per cent larger in an area that was deforested com-
pared to the more pristine area (Keuroghlian et al. 2015). Reyna
et al. (2009) observed a high level of spatial overlap among sub-
herds which varied with season and resources available (see also
Carrillo et al. 2002; Keuroghlian et al. 2004; Jácomo et al. 2013).
Herds movement is performed at the ‘landscape scale’ as
described by Fragoso (1999) by covering several types of habi-
tats. Reyna-Hurtado et al. (2012) found that groups move in a
short scale (<3 km) most of the time but occasionally do some
long-scale movements (>16 km) in the semi-dry Calakmul
forest of Mexico. These movement patterns followed a log-
normal distribution, a pattern described for species that need
to visit specific habitats and feed on non-uniform spatially dis-
persed food.
Many aspects of the movement patterns and the driving
abiotic and biotic factors are still unknown. This may requireFigure 25.2 Adult white-lipped
peccary displaying agonistic
behaviour; notice the large upper and
lower canines, which can inflict serious
injuries (photo by Brent Huffman/
UltimateUngulate). (A black and white
version of this figure will appear in some
formats. For the colour version, please
refer to the plate section.).02712:46:17