Abstract
Defensive behavioral patterns in response to human-induced rapid environmental change can affect animals’ fitness and may play a role in species conservation status. To test this hypothesis, we compared the risk assessment and defensive behavioral responses of captive white-lipped peccary (WLP; Tayassu pecari) and collared peccary (CP; Pecari tajacu), which retain different conservation status; WLP are considered vulnerable and CP of least concern. We used an adapted paradigm of the mouse defense test battery (MDTB) comprising four consecutive tests. Two of these tests simulated a novel environment, while the other two stimulated the expression of defensive behavioral patterns. Besides differences in risk assessment and defensive threat/attack behavioral patterns between species, we compared flight initiation distance, flight speed, and plasma glucocorticoid concentrations. When facing a novel environment and risk challenges from humans’ predator-like cues, the white-lipped peccary showed more exploratory and defensive threat/attack behavioral patterns, shorter flight initiation distances, and lower flight speeds, whereas the collared peccaries showed more cautious and retreat patterns, longer flight initiation distances, and higher flight speeds. There were also correlations between physiological and behavioral parameters. We confirmed our hypothesis that the collared peccary’s cautiousness may help to prevent a decrease in its population, while the white-lipped peccary’s exploratory and confrontational behavioral patterns in overhunted areas, together with other simultaneous factors as forest fragmentation, might contribute to placing this species in the vulnerable category.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baldwin MJ (1896) A new factor in evolution. Amer Nat 30:441–451
Beck H, Thebpanya P, Filiaggi M (2010) Do Neotropical peccary species (Tayassuidae) function as ecosystem engineers for anurans? J Trop Ecol 26:407–414
Beckerman AP, Wieski K, Baird DJ (2007) Behavioural versus physiological mediation of life history under predation risk. Oecologia 152:335–343
Blanchard RJ, Blanchard DC (1988) Ethoexperimental approaches to the biology of emotion. Annu Rev Psychol 39:43–68
Blanchard RJ, Yang M, Li C, Gervacio A, Blanchard DC (2001) Cue and context conditioning of defensive behaviors to cat odor stimuli. Neurosci Biobehav R 25:587–595
Blanchard DC, Griebel G, Blanchard RJ (2003) The mouse defense test battery: pharmacological and behavioral assays for anxiety and panic. Eur J Pharmacol 463:97–116
Blumstein DT, Ebensperger LA, Hayes LD, Vásquez RA, Ahern TH, Burger JR et al (2010) Towards an integrative understanding of social behavior: new models and new opportunities. Front Behav Neurosci 4:1–9
Brown GE, Rive-Maud AC, Ferrari CO, Chivers DP (2006) The dynamic nature of antipredator behavior: prey fish integrate threat-sensitive antipredator responses within background levels of predation risk. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61:9–16
Byers JA, Bekoff M (1981) Social, spacing and cooperative behavior of collared peccary. J Mammal 62:767–785
Cabassu Y (2010) Impacts of indigenous subsistence hunting on wildlife abundance in the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras. M.Sc. thesis, Carleton University.
Caro T (2005). Antipredator defense in birds and mammals. University of Chicago press, Chicago
Charmantier A, McCleery RH, Cole LR, Perrins C, Kruuk LEB, Sheldon BC (2008) Adaptive phenotypic plasticity in response to climate change in a wild bird population. Science 320:800–803
Cockrem JF (2013) Corticosterone responses and personality in birds: individual variation and the ability to cope with environmental changes due to climate change. Gen Comp Endocrinol 190:156–163
Coradello MA, Morais RN, Roper J, Spercoski KM, Massuda T, Nogueira SSC, Nogueira-Filho SLG (2012) Validation of a fecal glucocorticoid metabolite assay for collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu). J Zoo Wildlife Med 43:69–76
Cullen L, Bodmer ER, Valladares-Padua C (2001) Ecological consequences of hunting in Atlantic forest patches, São Paulo, Brazil. Oryx 35:137–144
Dall SRX, Houston AI, McNamara JM (2004) The behavioural ecology of personality: consistent individual differences from an adaptive perspective. Ecol Lett 7:734–739 doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2004.00618.x
Desbiez ALJ, Santos SA, Keuroghlian A, Bodmer RE (2009) Niche partitioning among white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari), collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu), and feral pigs (Sus scrofa). J Mammal 90:119–128
Dielenberg RA, McGregor IS (2001) Defensive behavior in rats towards predatory odors: a review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 25:597–609
Fragoso JMV (1998) Home range and movement patterns of white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) herds in the northern Brazilian amazon. Biotropica 30:458–469
Gongora J, Reyna-Hurtado R, Beck H, Taber A, Altrichter M and Keuroghlian A. 2011. Pecari tajacu. n: IUCN 2012. IUCN List of Threatened Species. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2011-2.RLTS.T41777A10562361.en Accessed 10 Feb 2016
Herborn KA, Heidinger BJ, Alexander L, Arnold KE (2014) Personality predicts behavioural flexibility in a fluctuating, natural environment. Behav Ecol 25:1374–1379
Hughes JP, Lytle IM (1975) Corticosteroids of the peccary (Dicotyles tajacu). Gen Comp Endocr 26:277–280
Kavaliers M, Choleris E (2001) Antipredator responses and defensive behavior: ecological and ethological approaches for the neurosciences. Neurosci Biobehav R 25:577–586
Keuroghlian A, Eaton DP, Longland WS (2004) Area use by white-lipped and collared peccaries (Tayassu pecari and Tayassu tajacu) in a tropical forest fragment. Biol Conserv 120:421–425
Keuroghlian A, Desbiez A, Reyna-Hurtado R, Altrichter M, Beck H, Taber A, Fragoso, JMV (2013) Tayassu pecari. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T41778A44051115.en Accessed 10 Feb 2016
Keuroghlian A, Santos MCA, Eaton DP (2015) The effects of deforestation on white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) home range in the southern Pantanal. Mammalia 70:491–497
Kiltie RA (1980) Seed predation and group size in rain forest peccaries. Dissertation, Princeton University
Kiltie RA, Terborgh J (1983) Observations on the behavior of rain forest peccaries in Peru: why do white-lipped peccaries form herds. Zeit Tierpsychology 62:241–255
Licona M, McCleery R, Collier B, Brightsmith DJ, Lopez R (2011) Using ungulate occurrence to evaluate community-based conservation within a biosphere reserve model. Anim Conserv 14:206–214
Lima SL, Dill LM (1990) Behavioral decisions made under the risk of predation: a review and prospectus. Can J Zoo 68:619–640
Luttbeg B, Sih A (2010) Risk, resources and state- dependent adaptive behavioural syndromes. Roy Soc Lond B Bio 365:3977–3990
Martin, TE (2011) The cost of fear. Science 34:1353--1354
Mason GJ (2010) Species differences in responses to captivity: stress, welfare and the comparative method. Trends Ecol Evol 25:713–721
Mason GJ, Burn CC, Dallaire JA, Kroshko J, Kinkaid HM et al (2013) Plastic animals in cages: behavioural flexibility and responses to captivity. Anim Behav 85:1113–1126
Montes-Perez RC, Kuri-Melo L, Mukul-Yerves JM, Segura-Correa JC, Centurión Castro FG (2012) Effects of two space allowances on cortisol levels, agonistic behavior and their relationship with the ovarian cycle of the collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) in captivity. Arch Latinoam Prod Anim 20:77–83
Nersesian CL, Banks PB, McArthur C (2012) Behavioural responses to indirect and direct predator cues by a mammalian herbivore, the common brushtail possum. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 66:47–55
Nogueira SSC, Macedo J, Sant’ Anna A, Nogueira-Filho SLG, da Costa MJR P (2015) Assessment of temperament traits of white-lipped (Tayassu pecari) and collared peccaries (Pecari tajacu) during handling in a farmed environment. Anim Welf 24:291–298
Nogueira-Filho SLG, Nogueira SSC, Sato T (1999) A estrutura social de pecaris (Mammalia, Tayassuidae) em cativeiro. Rev Etol 1:89–98
Nogueira-Filho SLG, Carvalho H, Peregrino H, Fernandes LC, Nogueira SSC (2012) Stress assessment in white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari). Suiform Soundings 11:21–28
Orrock J, Danielson B, Brinkerhoff R (2004) Rodent foraging is affected by indirect, but not by direct, cues of predation risk. Behav Ecol 15:433–437
Peres AC (2001) Synergistic effects of subsistence hunting and habitat fragmentation on Amazon forest vertebrates. Conserv Biol 15:1490–1505
Price TD, Qvarnström A, Irwin DE (2003) The role of phenotypic plasticity in driving genetic evolution. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 270:1433–1440
Reyna-Hurtado R, Beck H, Altrichter M, Chapman CA, Bonnell TR et al (2016) What ecological and anthropogenic factors affect group size in white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari)? Biotropica 48:246–254
Ribeiro-Barbosa ER, Canteras NS, Cezário AF, Blanchard RJ, Blanchard DC (2005) An alternative experimental procedure for studying predator-related defensive responses. Neurosci Biobehav R 29:1255–1263
Schmidt KA (2006) Non-additivity among multiple cues of predation risk: a behaviorally-driven trophic cascade between owls and songbirds. Oikos 113:82–90
Sih A (2013) Understanding variation in behavioural responses to human-induced rapid environmental change: a conceptual overview. Anim Behav 85:1077–1088
Sih A, Ferrari MCO, Harris DJ (2011) Evolution and behavioural responses to human-induced rapid environmental change. Evol Appl 4:367–387
Sowls, LK (1997). Javelinas and other peccaries: their biology, management and use. 2 ed. Texas A&M University Press, Arizona
Taber A, Altrichter M, Beck H, Gongora J (2011) The Tayassuidae. In: Wilson DE, Mittermeier RA (eds) Handbook of the mammals of the world: hoofed mammals, vol 2. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona, pp 292–307
Taber A, Beck H, Gonzalez S, Altrichter M, Duarta JMB, Reyna-Hurtado R (2016) Why Neotropical forest ungulates matter. In: Aguirre AA, Sukumar R (eds) Tropical conservation: perspectives on local and global priorities. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 255–261
Ticktin T (2003) Relationships between El Niño–Southern Oscillations and demographic patterns in a substitute food for collared peccaries in Panama. Biotropica 35:189–197
van Buskirk J (2012) Behavioural plasticity and environmental change. In: Candolin U, Wong BBM (eds) Behavioural responses to a changing world: mechanisms and consequences. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 145–158
Wingfield JC (2013) Biology of environmental stress: behavioral endocrinology and variation in the ability to cope with novel environments. Anim Behav 85:1127–1133
Wolf M, Van Doorn GS, Leimar O, Weissing FJ (2007) Life-history trade-offs favour the evolution of animal personalities. Nature 447:581–584
Acknowledgements
We are extremely grateful to Michele Devi Singh and to anonymous reviewers for their comments on the manuscript and English review. We are also grateful to all the staff of the Applied Ethology Laboratory, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz. This study was under the auspices of the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES/PROCAD-NF #794-2009) and UESC. Selene S.C. Nogueira and Sérgio L.G. Nogueira-Filho were supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq Processes 303743/2013-1 and #303589/2015-9), respectively. Aline M. Reis and Stefane G. Marsaro were supported by the CAPES and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB), respectively.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nogueira, S.S.C., Reis, A.M., Marsaro, S.G. et al. The defensive behavioral patterns of captive white-lipped and collared peccary (Mammalia, Tayassuidae): an approach for conservation of the species. acta ethol 20, 127–136 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-017-0256-5
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-017-0256-5