Reintroduction success and ecological aspects of reintroduced peccaries (Pecari tajacu) in the Ibera Natural Reserve, Corrientes, Argentina
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2017-10-11
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Towson University. Department of Biological Sciences
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Abstract
The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) is distributed from southern USA to northern Argentina; however, in some Argentinean localities it went extinct over 50 years ago. As part of a rewilding project, two peccary herds (one captive-bred family group and one mixed group of rescued or zoo individuals) were reintroduced to the Ibera Natural Reserve, northeastern Argentina. I evaluated initial reintroduction success by assessing survival rates, site fidelity, and behavioral changes; and studied ecological aspects of the reintroduced individuals such as activity patterns, diet, home range, and habitat selection. After quarantine time, 10 individuals (3 males and 7 females) were brought to a pen for a soft-release in June, 2015, and each individual was fitted with a VHF collar. A second herd (5 males and 5 females) was released following the same protocol in May, 2016. I monitored post-release movements of all the individuals to obtain GPS locations every 100 min. The initial reintroduction success was confirmed with high fidelity to release site for the first group and monthly survival rates over 60% for both reintroduced groups. The first group showed a behavioral change from 30% to 52% foraging time and 20% to 15% traveling time, for 2015 and 2016, respectively. Furthermore, diurnal activity patterns were consistent with previous studies in other areas and no effect of feral pig was observed in the activity patterns of the release individuals. The peccaries’ home range varied from 1.2 to 2 km2 and they showed preference for forested areas and the forest edge. These results indicate a successful reintroduction of peccaries in Argentina and I provide recommendations for future reintroductions.