New records of White-lipped Peccaries in altered landscapes of the Brazilian Midwest

Abstract

The White-lipped Peccary (WLP) is a large-sized mammal that lives in groups and needs large, preserved areas to survive. Over the last decades, the distribution area of the WLP has been reduced, being absent from areas where its occurrence is expected, such as the central region of southwestern Goiás, Brazilian Midwest. Therefore, here we presented eight new records of WLP in southwestern of Goiás state, with information on group size and landscape context. WLPs were recorded by camera trap, and we extracted the percentage of native cover (NC%), mean of Euclidean nearest-neighbor distance (MENND), and largest native patch area (LP (hectares)) in the landscape occupied by them. The WLP group size ranged from 1 to 52 individuals in anthropized landscapes (4.6 to 30.7 of NC%), with a MENND range of 89.4 to 165 m and LP ranged from 48.8 to 297.9. These findings could be an indication that the species is returning to use the region. However, we stress that this area may not support viable WLP populations in the long-term due to the level of anthropization of the studied landscape.