Part III: Conservation and Management280
extinction, is well demonstrated among the peccaries, where
white-lipped and Chacoan peccaries are the most vulnerable.
Large regions within the Neotropical range of white-lipped pec-
cary have been severely altered by deforestation, climate change,
agricultural development and urbanization, resulting in exten-
sive population losses (Altrichter et al. 2012; Jorge et al. 2013;
Keuroghlian et al. 2013). On the 1500 ha Barro Colorado Island
in Panama, Leigh and Wright (1990) reported the extirpation of
the white-lipped peccary, and they related its disappearance to
limited reserve size and the relatively large ranging requirements
of the species (Glanz 1990). In fact, in the 1940s, A. S. Leopold
(Leopold 1959) already noted that in Mexico, the white-lipped
peccary was the first species of large mammal to disappear when
humans colonized a forest. In 2005 it was estimated that this
species had disappeared from 84 per cent of its historical range
in Mexico and Guatemala (Altrichter et al. 2012).
White-lipped peccaries have also been extirpated in Costa
Rica’s 1510 ha La Selva Reserve (Wilson 1990). Janson and
Emmons (1990) and Kiltie and Terborgh (1983) stated that the
number of white-lipped peccaries at Cocha Cashu Biological
station in Peru had declined since 1981, and that the decline may
be due to hunting (Peres 1996). In the Atlantic Forest of south-
eastern Brazil, the species has disappeared from some small for-
est remnants (Cullen Jr. et al. 2001), and even large conservation
units (Azevedo & Conforti 2008). Extant conservation units in
the different ecosystems are not necessarily adequate to ensure
the survival of white-lipped peccaries, and even large protected
areas are not enough to guarantee the protection of viable popu-
lations (Peres 1996; Fragoso 2004; Azevedo & Conforti 2008;
Keuroghlian et al. 2013; Richard-Hansen et al. 2014). Peres
(1996), Melo et al. (2015), and Suarez et al. (2009) show clear
evidence that the white-lipped peccary was especially prone
to local extinction because of high hunting pressure in theAmazonian Forest (Figure 26.3) and habitat fragmentation in
the Atlantic Forest. A similar combination of habitat loss and
fragmentation, hunting, small population size, and local extinc-
tion is threatening the Chacoan peccary and many of the Asian
island pig species. For example, in the Chaco region of Paraguay,
the alarming rates of deforestation (Figure 26.1) and continued
hunting pressure are a cause for alarm, and although no formal
survey has taken place recently, the abundance as well as the size
of herds is notably declining for all three peccary species (Juan
Campos, personal communication). The same situation occurs
in Argentina, which has seen accelerated rates of deforestation
due to the advance of agriculture and livestock ranching and
continued hunting (Altrichter & Boaglio 2004; Altrichter 2005).
For the endangered Asian island pigs, the poaching and
habitat destruction leaves at least six species in a critical con-
servation status. The Sulawesi babirusa, for example, are hunted
to supply the Christian markets in North Sulawesi (Milner-
Gulland & Clayton 2002). The hunting and logging pressure
restricts their range to other parts of the peninsula, and those are
hunted to be sold to traders supplying other markets (Clayton
et al. 2000; Burton 2002; Riley 2002). Continued logging and
uncontrolled hunting may place further danger on this species
in the near future.
Survival on islands may provide an indication as to the like-
lihood of extinction of different pig species, although much
depends on the magnitude and duration of unsustainable hunt-
ing pressure. For example, the ecologically versatile and rapidly
reproducing S. scrofa was eradicated from all of the British Isles,
which are over 30,000,000 ha in size, in the thirteenth century
(Yalden 1999). Elsewhere, however, the species manages to sur-
vive on much smaller islands, such as those in South East Asia,
where the species remains extant on islands as small as 3300 ha
(Meijaard 2003). Apparently, even though the British Isles wereFigure 26.2 Common warthog
(Phacochoerus africanus), Kenya (photo
by Kristan A. Norvig). (A black and white
version of this figure will appear in some
formats. For the colour version, please
refer to the plate section.).02812:52:18