Home range and movement patterns of white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) herds in the northern Brazilian Amazon

Two white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) herds were radio-tracked for 5 and 13 mo, respectively on Maraca Island Ecological Reserve, Roraima, Brazil. Home range size was 109.6 km(2) for the larger herd (130 animals) and 21.8 km(2) for the smaller herd (53 animals). Neither herd migrated or moved nomadically during the study period. The herd with the longer observation period increased its home range size during the flooded season by including new sites not used in the nonflooded season and continuing to use the nonflooded season sites. This pattern of simultaneously using distinct seasonal ranges also occurred between the rainy and dry periods and the herd regularly and predictably returned to favored feeding sites. Population declines and disappearances in this study and others may have been caused by in situ mortality rather than by long-distance movements.