Movements of white-lipped peccary in French Guiana

Abstract

Understanding spatial behavior of animal species in their environment is crucial for better management of natural ecosystems. For the last decades, many wildlife species were fitted with various types of visual or electronic tags allowing biologists to have some insights of where they spend their lives. White-lipped peccaries are a key species in Neotropical forests, considered as ecosystem engineers playing crucial roles at local and landscape scales. However, tracking this vulnerable species in continuous tropical rainforest remains challenging, due to biological, environmental, and technical constraints. We fitted 15 animals from 2 different groups with GPS collars and monitored their movements in 2 study sites of French Guiana. The global home ranges of the groups appeared stable during the 4 years of the study. Home range sizes were estimated for the whole groups and longest individual monitoring (8 and 6 months, respectively) to be between 55 and 73 km2 (100% minimum convex polygon). Autocorrelated kernel density estimator (AKDE) gave more rigorous estimates of 34 and 49 km2 for each group, respectively, (AKDE 95%). Mean daily movements ranged 2–4 km per day. No long-distance moves were observed; however, some directional larger-scale movements occurred, alternating with smaller-scale activity periods. Open habitats (wet and dry savannas) were clearly avoided, and small strips of coastal forest were actively used. No clear seasonal pattern can be detected in use of space. This study is a first important step in conserving and managing this vulnerable species in French Guiana. We showed that healthy populations of white-lipped peccaries can exist near human activity, providing appropriate hunting and habitat management. Particularly, conserving habitat connectivity and forest corridors, which proved to be key elements for white-lipped peccaries’ movements, is crucial.