Peccaries between the Palms

Down here in Central America there are two species of wild pigs the Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu) and the White-lipped Peccary (Tayassu pecari). My only previous experience with Peccary’s are the white lipped. White-lipped Peccary (Tayassu pecari) are only found in Costa Rica in area of large tracts of primary forest due to hunting and destruction of habitat. They used to be a widespread species found in all areas of the country. They have a correlation to Jaguars (Panthera onca) and other large cats it seems. In the area where I’ve seen them in Panama, they seem to be one of the Jaguars primary food sources. I’ve heard in the past no Peccaries, no Jaguars, although Jaguars are know to eat a wide variety of prey species. So the validity of that statement might be on the questionable side.  Never the less only glimpses were a few running away and their distinct odder the leave behind from areas where they have slept, aka where the defecated, they are not the cleanest of, or nicest smelling of animals. Giving more validity of why I was excited and shocked when I had the experience with the other species in Central America, The Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu).   

The sun was fully up at Curu and the birds started to become slow, so I decided to go out past one of our nets lanes to check out a flowering bush I had saw earlier in the day. With the mid morning sun fully barring down on it, I thought it must be attracting all sorts of bees, butterflies, and a plethora of other tropical species. I have yet to identify the species of plant so far, but it looked very similar to our Joe-pye Weed back home in the states, and we all know that just attracts butterflies like no other in the right season. There were skippers, metalmarks, fritillaries, and even Queen’s (Danaus gilippus) there; I was fully enthralled by the scene. I

Queen’s (Danaus gilippus)

Unidentified Skipper sp.

Unidentified Mantis sp.

 can certainly get tunnel vision when I find something interesting, so I wasn’t much paying attention to my surroundings.  After maybe thirty minutes or so I saw a White-faced Capuchin who I’m quite familiar with because I’ve given him the name hulkster, as the name implies he is a very robust and muscular Capuchin.  He’s also a bit of a troublemaker, he strays from his troop often, so I encounter him with a decent regularity. So while he was tearing apart a termite nest, I continued on with trying to catch some pesky bee species to photograph. Some more time passed and I heard some rustling behind me, I paid very little attention to it ,thinking it was once again hulkster. The noise started getting more robust and furious, so I finally investigated. To my absolute shock it was a pack of Collared Peccaries (Pecari tajacu).    

Collared Peccaries (Pecari tajacu)

 They were meandering out of some thick vegetation into the open mud flats of the back Red Mangrove estuary; my initial thought was of course I need to get a closer look. This was my first time encountering this species, so I wasn’t quite sure how they would react. They really paid no mind to me at first and I was able to get quite close with my 100mm macro lens, my only weapon for photos.  They went around a couple of trees and disappeared down what looked like the perfect size peccary hole in the vegetation. With some time to reflect I should have though a little more about their trajectory and where I would be walking next. I had exhausted my allotted time to photograph and collect specimens, and needed to start a net check. We have the three different trails to check nets, so I was going to go down the middle trail, which happened to be where the peccaries had come out from and entered back down adjacent to. Not long after starting to go down what are net 13, did I start to hear some rustling.

Net lane 12 & 13

 Nets 12 and 13 are connected, so the path is about 30 meters long, but is a completely isolated corridor, one-way in one-way out. I was about half way down it when I started to see the broom bristle likes hairs through the vegetation.  I could see just dark shadows moving close to the ground, with the occasional snort. As soon as I hit the middle pole that connects the nets, one of the Peccaries charged out from the vegetation. My only thought was I do not need to explain tusk sized puncture wounds in my leg. With a quick swift motion I used the only tool I had to defend myself: a Butterfly net, I whapped him against the snout. It quickly returned to the vegetation. I immediately felt like I was the inferior subject in the situation. My choices were to press on or head back, I decided to push forward. I could hear the peccaries on either side of the vegetation moving along and doing this clacking noise with their tusks. It was really a very unsettling noise as I was trying to determine when the next one may try and charge. Luckily they wanted to get away from me as much as I wanted to get away from them. As soon as I emerged from the net lane there were peccaries on either side of the main trail. They quickly scattered and I returned to checking nets down the middle lane. Unfortunately the one group scattered the same direction I was going. So the whole way back to the main station site I clutched my butterfly net tight as I listened to the echoing noise of their tusks clacking. To say it was an eerie feeling is an understatement.  I finally got to the lane ending and the trail widened up; they took off one way and I another. I was glad to no longer feel like I was in a Predator movie on the wrong end of the storyline.  The thing is I seem to never quite learn my lesson in these types of situations, so I went back to the same area latter for more photos, sure enough I encountered two more that must have been dragging behind. With the harsh sun earlier I wasn’t really satisfied with photos, so I decided to give it another go. I once again was not satisfied, but did get a closer look at the subjects.

Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu)

A very muddy Collared Peccary (Pecari tajacu)

 All in all it was an interesting experience that once again reminded me that every day doing research in the tropics there will be a story to be told.