Ethnoecology, Resource Use, Conservation And Development In A ...

Table 7.2. Comparison of ethnoecological and ecological data sets for Tayassu tajacu
Subject Ethnoecological data Ecological observations
Diet Seeds, fruits, grubs Reproductive plant parts dominate diet
found in palm seeds, [1,2,3,4,5]
earthworms, roots Earthworms one of several categories of animal
and cultivated foods eaten [5]
tubers.
Raid crops [6], consume roots and tubers [5,7]
Levels of consumption of seasonal fruits vary
Food more abundant according to availability [5]
in wet season, when Palm seeds often left on forest floor for several
fruit dominates diet. weeks before consumption [2]
Seeds masticated, so dispersal unlikely [1,2]
Dry seeds eaten in Bite sufficiently strong to crush some, but not all,
dry season.
seeds consumed [8]
Consume palm seeds for larvae of insect seed
Seed predators. predators [19]
Intraspecific Modal group size 6- Group size 1-20+, modes 1 and 6-10 in
behaviour 12, maximum 20. Venezuelan forests [9]
Males sometimes Mean group size 6.7, range 4-11 in Paraguayan
solitary. Group size Chaco [10]
smaller in hunted Herd sizes 6-15 [11]
populations. Group sizes 1-16 in Texas [12]
Herd sizes range from 1-18, mean 4.89, at a
number of forest sites in Brazil, subjected to
varying hunting pressure. Mean at unhunted site
slightly larger than overall mean: 5.75 [13]
Herd sizes in French Guiana from 5-11 [14]
Habitat use Occupy fixed home Home range stable over 6 month study period
ranges, occasionally [10].
abandoned. Shelter in Stable home ranges overlapping at peripheries
holes in rotten tree (Arizona) [11]
trunks or old burrows Stable, though seasonally variant, overlapping
of Priodontes
home ranges. Burrows used for sleeping [14].
maximus. Found Preference for moist forests and várzea [5]
throughout forest,
use swamps for
feeding.
Regularly visit wallows [17]
Activity Diurnal Diurnal [6]
Reproductive Usual litter size 2 Mean litter size 1.89 in Texas [15]
biology
Mean litter size in Peru 1.93 [5,16]
Most common litter size 2 [6]
Interspecific Predated upon by One group observed to change home range in
interactions Panthera onca, Puma response to range shifts of sympatric feral hogs
concolor, and Boa (Sus scrofa) [12].
constrictor.
Predation by Panthera onca and Puma Concolor
Displaced temporarily [6,14,18]
by Tayassu pecari. Predation by Panthera onca [20,21]
[1] Kiltie 1981a [2] Bodmer 1989 [3] Henry 1997 [4] Barreto et al. 1997
[5] Bodmer et al. 1997a [6] Sowls 1984 [7] Olmos 1993 [8] Kiltie 1982
[9] Robinson and Eisenberg 1985 [10] Taber et al. 1994 [11]Schweinsburg 1971
[12] Ilse and Hellgren 1995 [13] Peres 1996 [14] Judas and Henry 1999 [15]
Hellgren et al. 1995 [16] Gottdenker and Bodmer 1998 [17] Kiltie and Terborgh 1983
[18] Cunningham et al. 1999 [19] Kiltie 1981b [20] Emmons 1987 [21] Tewes and
Schmidly 1987