White-lipped Peccary In Mesoamerica: Status, Threats And Conservation Actions

Belize White­lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) is one of the three extant species of peccaries. Peccaries are pig shy like animals from the Tayassuidae family, a family of ungulates from the Neotropics. White shy lipped peccary distribution range extends from northern Argentina to southern Mexico with the largest contiguous population within the Amazon forest, and smaller and isolated populations scattered from Panama to Mexico.

Group size can vary from less than 10 to over 300 individuals. Historically there were reports of hundreds of white shy lipped peccaries roaming together through the Neotropical understory, however, habitat destruction and hunting has dramatically affected their group size. In addition, white­lipped peccaries are highly prized prey for subsistence and market hunters. Currently, the species is listed on Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and classified as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. The whitelipped peccary is presently considered endangered, or critically endangered, for some areas of Brazil and for all of Mexico, Belize, Costa Rica and Panama by the environmental institutions of these countries. According to an analysis by Altrichter et al. (2012) using data from 2005, the range of white shy lipped peccary had been reduced by 20.5 % from its historic distribution over the previous 100 years including extirpations from entire countries (i.e. El Salvador and Uruguay). In another 48% of its current range, white­lipped peccary remains but with reduced abundance and a low to medium probability of long shy term survival.

There have been major range declines in Argentina, Paraguay, southern Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, northeast Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras y Panama. Long term monitoring projects in strategic sites in Mesoamerica (Maya forest in Guatemala and Mexico; Darien forest, Panama; Bosawas, Nicaragua) carried out by academic or conservationist organizations (Wildlife Conservation Society, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur; Fundación Yaguara Panamá) have suggested that the species situation across Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica) is quite different than the situation in the Amazon forest. In that context, the current global status of Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, which includes vast secure areas in South America, does not represent the status of the species in Mesoamerica, which is in contrast, highly jeopardized mainly because of the current rate of deforestation and forest fragmentation. Seeing the need for a regionally shy focused review, a group of more than 30 scientists, conservationists and professionals convened to discuss the status of the species from Panama to Mexico and compile the most accurate available information on current range, status of the populations, main threats, and conservation actions needed for white shy lipped peccaries in each of the 7 countries of the Mesoamerican region where the species survive (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama; the species is extinct in El Salvador). We assigned national coordinators to aggregate expert opinion from each of 7 represented countries through a formal questionnaire about estimates of population and group size, through a presentation and a mapping exercise, which was then coordinated at the symposium by a spatial analysis expert. This provided the first regional scientific assessment of white shy lipped peccary range, status, and trends.

More than 40 participants delivered responses to a questionnaire sent in advance of the meeting that took place on August 25th, 2016 in Belize City, within the framework of the XX Congress of the Mesoamerican Society for Biology and Conservation. Objectives of the review event were described in an opening presentation led by Rafael Reyna and Jeremy Radachowsky followed by presentations for each country, summarizing the existing knowledge of the species. The symposium ended with a mapping exercise in which the current range of the species from Mexico to Panama was plotted on a single map. This exercise was led by Daniel Thornton from Washington State University, who used polygons and shapefiles as well as drawings to elaborate the maps according to best available knowledge of the species in each country, and across the whole region.

Respondents were able to identify at least 29 populations scattered across 7 countries of Mesoamerica. However, information on these 29 populations revealed rapid negative trends. Of the 29 populations, 20 were classified as showing a decreasing trend (69%), 4 were classified as unknown (14%), 4 as stable (14%) and only 1 population was categorized as apparently increasing (3%). The majority of populations were estimated as lower than 1000 animals and in most of the cases current group sizes were estimated at fewer than 50 animals, which compared to remote sites and historical records, are small for this species. Large, stable populations exist only in the tri shy national Maya forest (Calakmul in Mexico, Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala and Rio Bravo in Belize) and the Darien National Park in Panama. Smaller but stable or increasing populations were identified only in the Maya Mountains (Belize) and Corcovado National Park (Costa Rica). All other populations are experiencing a rapid decrease. Most experts consider hunting pressure and habitat loss as the main threats to all populations, with only one population that seems affected by water unavailability (Calakmul forest, Mexico). The relevance of diseases as a threat is unknown, and lack of connectivity is affecting the smaller populations.

White shy lipped peccary status and future scenarios are not optimistic in Mesoamerica. Seventy percent of the remnant isolated populations were classified with a decreasing trend with only a few of them (17%) located in large protected areas, showing a stable or increasing trend. The major threats identified across all countries were unregulated and illegal hunting pressure and habitat loss. Although it is difficult to define which one is paramount, there is evidence that severe hunting pressure may eliminate whole populations from major areas of otherwise healthy forest. Hunting in combination with habitat loss is the worst scenario for the conservation of large and healthy populations of white shy;lipped peccaries in Mesoamerica. This current and growing reality is calling for the need of implementing conservation actions such as in shy country hunting regulations. The status of white shy lipped peccaries in Mesoamerica is more critical than its current range shy wide IUCN Red List status of “vulnerable”. The current strongholds are remnants and the precipitous declines in range and group size justify a regionally accurate classification in the IUCN Red List to help provide a mechanism to ensure better protection of the species.

In summary, in Mesoamerica white shy lipped peccaries range has been reduced from 87% of its historical distribution to a few populations that may be stable, whilst the remaining 70% is decreasing. Therefore, we consider that the IUCN Red List status of the species as a whole does not accurately represent the situation of the Mesoamerican populations. We recommend that the status of white shy lipped peccaries be raised to Endangered in the Mesoamerican region (from Mexico to Panama) given its likely status as the rarest and most jeopardized large terrestrial mammal in the region.