Pecari tajacu (Linnaeus, 1758)

Voss, Robert S. & Fleck, David W., 2017, Mammalian Diversity And Matses Ethnomammalogy In Amazonian Peru Part 2: Xenarthra, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, And Sirenia, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2017 (417), pp. 1-1 : 1-

Pecari tajacu (Linnaeus, 1758)

VOUCHER MATERIAL (TOTAL = 9): Boca Río Yaquerana (FMNH 88799–88802, 89176, 89177), Nuevo San Juan (MUSM 11182, 11183), Quebrada Esperanza (FMNH 88803).

OTHER INTERFLUVIAL RECORDS: Actiamë ( Amanzo, 2006), Choncó ( Amanzo, 2006), Divisor ( Jorge and Velazco, 2006), Itia Tëbu ( Amanzo, 2006), Río Yavarí (Salovaara et al., 2003), Río Yavarí-Mirím (Salovaara et al., 2003), San Pedro (Valqui, 1999), Tapiche ( Jorge and Velazco, 2006).

IDENTIFICATION: Specimens of Pecari tajacu collected in the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve externally resemble the widespread Amazonian phenotype ( Husson, 1978; Emmons 1997), and craniodental measurements of our material ( table 17 ) broadly overlap those of Surinamese specimens ( Husson, 1978: table 58) for most dimensions. Although skulls of P. tajacu from the Yavarí-Ucayali interfluve seem to average a bit larger than conspecific Surinamese specimens, they are much smaller than the skulls of P. maximus measured by Roosmalen et al. (2007: table 1). For example, whereas the mean and standard deviation for condyloincisive length in our material (N = 7, males and females combined) is 211.3 ± 6.0 mm, the homologous dimensions of two specimens of P. “ maximus ” (sex unknown) are reported as 260 and 262 mm (Roosmalen et al., 2007). Although sample size and sample composition are obviously problematic in this comparison, the estimated mean difference between our material and Roosmalen et al.’s (about 50 mm, equivalent to eight standard deviations) is too large to be easily dismissed as intraspecific variation. If P. tajacu populations sometimes include “extremely large” individuals—equivalent in size to Roosmalen et al.’s material, as Gongora et al. (2011) suggest—we have not seen any evidence of it.

Analyses of mtDNA control region sequences ( Gongora et al., 2006, 2011) suggest the existence of two moderately well-supported phylogroups of Pecari tajacu , consisting of predominantly North American and Central American sequences on the one hand and of South American sequences on the other. Unfortunately, the relevance of this analytic result for assessing the plethora of currently recognized subspecies ( Grubb, 2005) is unclear, because no sequence data are available from the type localities of several key nominal taxa, including the nominotypical form (restricted by convention to Pernambuco, Brazil; Cabrera, 1961; Hershkovitz, 1963). At the moment, no trinomial classification of P. tajacu seems justified by the analytic results in hand, although Amazonian material is often refered to P. t. patira Kerr, 1792.

ETHNOBIOLOGY: The principal term for the collared peccary is şhëkten, a monomorphemic term that is not found in any other Panoan language. The collared peccary has two archaic synonyms: unkin and matoşh, both of which are monomorphemic terms found in other Mayoruna languages, but not in other Panoan languages. 14 In

14 See Fleck (2013: table 1) for a classification of Mayoruna and other branches of the Panoan language family.

the language used in the Matses’ komok ceremony, the collared peccary is called pani tuku, a term that is not synchronically analyzable.

Two varieties of collared peccaries are recognized: şhëkten çhëşhë (“black” or “dark-colored” collared peccary) and şhëkten uşhu (“white” or “light-colored” collared peccary). The dark variety is said to be larger. The light colored variety does not enter holes quickly when chased by dogs and its hide dries more quickly than that of the darker variety.

The collared peccary is a primary game animal for the Matses, who encounter them in various ways. Hunters hear collared peccaries crunching up palm nuts and then approach quietly and shoot them with a shotgun (formerly with arrows). Hunters also visit mineral licks during the day to see if peccaries or other game animals are there. When one collared peccary is killed, the rest of the herd will run off, but if the hunter remains hidden and quiet, the rest of the herd often returns (even if a shotgun was used), and the hunter can kill a second peccary. The herd may even return a third and fourth time.

Hunters also track collared peccaries after finding their spoor. Collared peccaries often sweep away leaf litter, root, defecate, rub their scent gland on saplings, and leave tracks right on Matses paths. Hunters follow spoor until they can hear the animals, or until their hunting dogs pick up the scent.

One hunting method that, as far as we know, is employed only by the Matses, is to chase down a collared peccary with dogs until it enters a hole in a headwater gully or a hollow log, and then to strangle it with a noose on a stick. When Matses hunting dogs find a herd of collared peccaries, they chase them as the hunter follows, encouraging the dogs. If the dogs follow a peccary closely enough, the peccary (usually one, but occasionally two or three) may seek refuge in a hole in a stream headwater gully. These holes are cavities in the bank that have been formed over time by erosion; often the roof of such a hole will be close to the surface of the ground overhead. Alternatively, the peccary may enter a hollow log. When the hunter catches up to the dogs and the cornered peccary, he blocks the entrance to the hole or log with any dry or rotten woody debris that he can find nearby. Then he prepares a noose from the hard vinelike stems of an epiphyte called ayaşh ( Heteropsis spp. [ Araceae ]) and attaches it to the end of a stick about 1 m long. Next, the hunter pokes a small hole in the roof of the hole or hollow trunk, introduces the noose, works it around the peccary’s neck using the stick, and garrotes the animal.

Slain peccaries—both collared and whitelipped—are prepared for packing home in a particular way (figs. 19, 20). First, the lower jaw is tied to the ankles of the forelegs with an epiphyte stem (the same stem used to make the noose, if the peccary was killed in this manner). Then the ankles of the hind legs are tied to those of the front legs. Next, a tumpline is fashioned from the inner bark of certain trees, one end of which is tied to the upper jaw and the other end to the rump. The lower tusks keep the lashing from slipping, and the upper tusks keep the tumpline from slipping. If the animal was killed far from the village, the carcass is gutted to lighten the load. Before carrying the peccary, the hunter rubs his dogs’ noses on the peccary’s caudal scent gland so that they will follow peccaries readily in the future.

The carcass is skinned at home by a woman. Other women will come to where the skinner is working and ask for a leg or part of the viscera, and she will give it to them. Different cuts are given or fed to different people, for example, an old woman typically eats the intestines, visiting men the ribs, a young woman is given the leg, etc. If the peccary was killed by dogs, the dogs will be fed some of the meat.

The Matses raise collared peccaries as pets. The young are often left behind when the adult peccaries flee, and these can be chased down and caught. Tame young peccaries are allowed to roam the village, but peccaries become aggressive when they are older and must kept in a pen. Peccaries are not raised in sufficient numbers or in conditions that would allow them to reproduce in captivity, and the Matses do not eat their pets.

Collared peccary hides can be legally sold, but currently the hides are not worth much, so the Matses only occasionally prepare the skins of peccaries they have killed. Some Matses smoke peccary meat for sale to non-Indians at Colonia Angamos and Requena. However, it is mainly those who live close to these markets who do so regularly, because the money earned by selling smoked meat barely covers the cost of the gasoline needed for canoe travel from more distant Matses villages.

Men do not eat the intestines of peccaries, lest they scrape themselves with a rough-barked vine while they are chasing animals during a hunt. Hunters do not eat peccary spleens, lest their spleens hurt while chasing game animals.

MATSES NATURAL HISTORY: The collared peccary has a white stripe around its neck. It has large ears and a flat-tipped nose. It has two hooves on each foot. It has a tiny tail. Even newborns have a caudal scent gland, which emits a very strong smell that is different from the scent of whitelipped peccaries. Its feces are seed-shaped pellets.

The collared peccary is found in all habitats, including floodplain and upland forest, and primary and secondary forest. They are especially commonly found along small and medium-sized streams. They seem to be more abundant in areas that are near abandoned Matses villages, where there are large stretches of secondary forest growing in abandoned swiddens. They also come to active Matses swiddens to eat manioc tubers and cush-cush yams.

Collared peccaries are diurnal. They travel far looking for fruits to eat. They chew loudly on palm nuts. They follow streams, rooting for earthworms in the rich soil of the stream floodplain and digging in the streambed for aquatic snails. They leave the water turbid where they have foraged in the streambed, and in areas where they have rooted the leaf litter is swept away. They also root on hilltops, leaving the ground swept clear.

Collared peccaries drink muddy water, eat mud, and bathe at mineral licks. They also root for earthworms at the edge of mineral licks and palm swamps. They come to swiddens where they root in the ground with their noses to expose manioc tubers.

Collared peccaries take mud baths in small muddy depressions in the ground. A depression used for this purpose is often created when a tree is blown over and its roots are uplifted. Peccaries return again and again to bathe in the same mud holes, and are often caked in mud. As they travel through the forest they leave their scent on saplings by rubbing their scent glands on them.

Collared peccaries sleep on the ground wherever they are when it becomes night. They sleep on hilltops, stream valleys, and even on hillsides if the slope is not too steep. They sweep a small patch of ground (but do not dig a depression, as they do to give birth) and sleep on it. They sleep near each other, but not touching, with a space of about 1 m separating one from another.

Collared peccaries live in herds of 5 to about 15 individuals. Occasionally one finds a solitary peccary, or a pair. Collared peccaries are fattest at the end of the rainy season (May). The female gives birth to a single young during the rainy season after digging a depression in level ground. It suckles its young right in the same place where it gave birth. During the first day, the female leaves her young to eat fruits and then comes back to suckle it again. By the second day the newborn peccary begins to travel, very slowly, with the herd. During the first day the rest of the herd stays around the area where the female gave birth, and after that they walk slowly so the newborn can keep up (the female does not separate herself from the herd to give birth).

Collared peccaries are eaten by jaguars, pumas, and (less frequently) by anacondas.

Adults make groanlike grunts. They clack their teeth when they become aggressive. The young also grunt, saying “wek wek wek.”

Peccaries crunch the hard nuts of pinchuk palms ( Astrocaryum murumuru , A. chambira , and A. jauari [ Arecaceae ]) to eat the endosperm. They also eat the endosperm of şhuinte mapi ( Attalea tessmanii [ Arecaceae ]) nuts and the mesocarp and endosperm of swamp palm ( Mauritia flexuosa [ Arecaceae ]) fruits and isan ( Oenocarpus bataua [ Arecaceae ]) fruits. Among the dicot tree fruits they eat are kuëte ise (unidentified), poshton tonte (? Macoubea guianensis [ Apocynaceae ]), tonnad (a general term for trees in the family Myristicaceae ), kuëte mëdiad (an unidentified tree with starchy fruits), and tote ( Eschweilera spp. and Lecythis spp. [ Lecythidaceae ]). Collared peccaries also eat the new unrolled leaves of wild banana plants. They gnaw on the pith of fallen budëd palms ( Attalea butyracea [ Arecaceae ]).

They also eat invertebrates, including aquatic snails, clams, crabs, freshwater shrimp, and earthworms. They occasionally find and eat rotten meat.

REMARKS: Matses observations about collared peccaries are richly detailed and suggest long and intimate familiarity with this primary game species. All the salient facts about collared peccary natural history documented in the literature are reported by the Matses, including diurnality, small herd size, use of wallows and mineral licks, scent-marking, feline predators, and a mostly frugivorous/gra-

nivorous diet supplemented by invertebrates and browse (Kiltie, 1981, 1982; Kiltie and Terborgh, 1983; Byers, 1985; Bodmer, 1989; Tobler et al., 2009; Blake et al., 2012). Matses observations confirm the fondness of this species for the very hard, golf-ball-size nuts of Astrocaryum spp. , the coconutlike endosperm of which is an important trophic resource otherwise accessible only to capuchin monkeys (Terborgh, 1983; Voss and Fleck, 2011), white-lipped peccaries (Kiltie, 1982; see below), and rodents ( Emmons, 1997; Voss and Fleck, in prep.). Interestingly, the Matses claim that collared peccaries consume the dense, ivory-hard endosperm of Mauritia flexuosa seeds, which Kiltie (1982) believed to be eaten only by whitelipped peccaries. Other noteworthy dietary items are aquatic mollusks and crustaceans, both seemingly improbable food resources, but snail opercula were reported from peccary stomachs by Kiltie (1981). Many other behavioral details (e.g., of nocturnal bivouacking) are not described in the literature we consulted.