| White-lipped Peccary | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Tayassuidae |
| Genus: | Tayassu |
| Species: | T. pecari |
| Binomial name | |
| Tayassu pecari (Link, 1795) |
|
The White-lipped Peccary, Tayassu pecari, is a peccary species found in Central and South America, living in rainforest, dry forest and chaco scrub. It is monotypic within the genus Tayassu.
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 reports of jaguars being killed by angered peccary herds and even some humans have been killed.
The white-lipped peccary is found in Central America and South America. It ranges from southeast Mexico, throughout eastern Central America, to northern Argentina. The white-lipped peccary was introduced to Cuba in 1930, but possibly is no longer found there. According to the IUCN it's already extirpated in El Salvador and its range has been reduced in Mexico and Central America during the last 20 years.[2]