One of the 3 peccaries on WAnimals
Mammals · Artiodactyla · Tayassuidae
Catagonus wagneri
At very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.
The Chacoan peccary is the largest of the peccaries and one of the most surprising zoological discoveries of the twentieth century: it was described in 1930 from fossils and was believed extinct until living populations were found in the Paraguayan Chaco in 1974. It is highly adapted to dry thorn forest: it eats cactus, whose spines it strips by rolling the plants along the ground with its snout, and its kidneys process the acid in them. It lives in small groups and depends on a habitat that is being cleared at great speed.
Weight
30 kg – 43 kg
Size
96 cm – 1.2 m
Life expectancy
9 years
Diet
Herbivore
Feeds mainly on plants.
Activity
Diurnal
Active mainly during the day.
Social structure
Herd
Lives in large groups as a strategy against predators.
Sighting difficulty
Hard
Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catagonus_wagneri
Best time: All year round in the Gran Chaco of Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina, mostly in the morning; it is very wary and hard to watch.
The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.
Parks and dive sites where this species has been documented.
Other species in the catalogue with the most in common with Chacoan Peccary — same habitat, park, country, tags or family.
The chacoan peccary is classified as endangered. Organisations such as the IUCN, WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society work specifically on its conservation and that of its habitat; looking into their programmes is a good starting point if you want to get involved.
It's documented in 3 protected areas — one reason why protecting these places matters for its conservation.
Based on what we already know about chacoan peccary.
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