White-lipped Peccary
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| White-lipped Peccary | ||||||||||||||
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| Tayassu pecari (Link, 1795) |
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The White-lipped Peccary, Tayassu pecari, Tayassu albirostris, is a peccary species found in Central and South America, living in rainforest, dry forest and chaco scrub. It was considered the largest peccary species, until the Giant Forest Peccary was discovered.
The White-lipped Peccary is diurnal and lives in large herds of 50 to 300+ individuals, though there have been reported sightings of up to 2,000 individuals. It is an omnivorous animal, feeding on fruits, roots, tubers, palm nuts, grasses and invertebrates.
Like the Collared Peccary, it is a main prey species of the Jaguar and, less frequently, of the Cougar.
The White Lipped Peccary is widely considered the most dangerous peccary; unlike the rather shy Collared Peccary, the White Lipped species will charge at any enemy if cornered, and when one of them is injured, the entire herd returns to defend it. There are many reports of jaguars being killed and ripped into pieces by angered peccary herds, and even some humans have been killed.[citation needed] However, these fatalities are nothing compared with the number of peccaries killed by humans every year.
[edit] References
- Louise H. Emmons and Francois Feer, 1997 - Neotropical Rainforest Mammals, A Field Guide.
