White-lipped peccary Tayassu pecari
The New World pigs family – Tayassuidae
The peccaries resemble pigs; they have large, cuneiform head, short neck, small eyes, slightly rounded ears, short legs, and little tail. However, due to some specific characteristics of the peccaries, zoologists assigned them to a separate family; in the peccaries, the tusks on their upper jaw are short and grow downward rather then upward like what is seen in the pigs; they have only three toes on each of the hind feet; their stomach has three chambers and is more complex than that in the pigs; and they have special scent glands on their lower backs. When the peccary is excited, its hair stands up and uncovered gland sprays its secretion over the tree trunks, bushes, and grass. The secretion (called “musk”) serves as a signal providing important information for other peccaries. The strange location of the gland is quite reasonable considering that peccaries live in marshy habitats – the higher scent marks are located, the longer they will sustain in case of flood.
The white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) ranges from southern Mexico south to southern Brazil and northern Argentina. These animals live in diverse habitats, including desert shrub, and tropical dry and humid forests. The white-lipped peccaries are active in both day and night, but are mostly nocturnal. These animals often migrate, moving from place to place in search of food and water. The white-lipped peccaries live in large groups numbering up to 200 specimens, with females dominating over the males. Depending on the habitat, they can feed on both insects and plants, including seeds, leaves, roots, and fruit. They can sometimes treat themselves with various small vertebrate animals. Numbers of the white-lipped peccaries significantly reduced in the last decades, and this species is currently listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as vulnerable.
