collared peccary (Phoenix Zoo - Arizona Trail)

collared peccary

Pecari tajacu

Summary ⁷

The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) is a species of mammal in the family Tayassuidae found in North, Central, and South America. They are commonly referred to as javelina, saíno or báquiro, although these terms are also used to describe other species in the family. The species is also known as the musk hog, Mexican hog. and javelina. In Trinidad, it is colloquially known as quenk.

Range description ⁸

The Collared Peccary is widely distributed. It occurs in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in the USA, a large part of Mexico and Central America, the entire Amazon basin, the Pacific coastal forest of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, the llanos and lowland forest of Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname, all of Brazil where it is increasingly fragmented in the south and east, and the Gran Chaco of Paraguay, Bolivia and northern Argentina where it also occurs in the upper Parana and Paraguay river basins. In Argentina, the species is extinct in the eastern and southern portions of its original distribution. The Argentine population/s of Collared Peccaries in Misiones is isolated from the rest of the country. Some of the larger islands near the mainland in the Caribbean, such as Trinidad and Tobago, also have populations of P. tajacu. However, islands further from the mainland do not currently have peccaries. Their range has recently expanded northward in the southwestern United States (Albert et al. 2004) including into Oklahoma adjacent to Texas (Stangl and Dalquest 1990).

Iucn red list assessment ⁹

Red List Category

Least Concern

Red List Criteria

Version

3.1

Year Assessed

2011

Assessor/s

Gongora, J., Reyna-Hurtado, R., Beck, H., Taber, A., Altrichter, M. & Keuroghlian, A.

Reviewer/s

Mayor, P. & Biondo, C.

Contributor/s

Justification

Listed as Least Concern as this species is widely distributed and occurs in a variety of habitats, including woodlands, tropical dry and rainforests, savannas, Gran Chaco, and deserts, from the southern USA through to northern Argentina. However, given the continuing rates of habitat destruction and potential for over-hunting of this species, the status of all populations requires monitoring.

History