Apr. 29, 2013 — It turns out the white-lipped peccary -- a piglike animal from Central and South America -- will settle for fish when fruits (its main food) are no longer on the menu, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society and partners revealing the first-ever photos of fish-eating peccaries.
The images of fish consumption by white-lipped peccaries were taken by Douglas Fernandes in the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands one morning back in 2011. A short description of the observations, along with the digital photographs taken, will appear in the latest edition of Suiform Soundings(IUCN Peccary Specialist Group Newsletter).
"As far as we know, these are the first images of fish consumption by white-lipped peccaries," said Dr. Alexine Keuroghlian of the Wildlife Conservation Society and an expert on peccaries. "This finding expands our knowledge of how this ecologically important species survives in highly seasonal habitats."
While there was one reported account by Dr. Joe Fragoso of the white-lipped peccary dining on fish in the Amazon, the behavior has been rarely seen and apparently never photographed until the morning of August 17, 2011. On that day, Fernandes, a researcher for the Instituto Arara Azul, a partner organization , observed a group of approximately 30 white-lipped peccaries at Caiman Lodge near the town of Miranda in the Pantanal, one of the world's largest tropical wetlands. Most of the peccaries fled as he approached, but five remained as they fed on aquatic plants in shallow ponds, created by the receding flood waters typical of the Pantanal's dry season. It was then that Fernandes noticed three of the peccaries eating traira, or wolf fish, from the oxygen-starved ponds.
These images of fish-eating white-lipped peccaries were taken on the morning of August 17, 2011. After a review of the scientific literature, the photographer and his colleagues realized that photographic evidence of this behavior was unprecedented. (Credit: Douglas Fernandes)
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