Shin, Seungwon (Salt Lake Community College)
Faculty Advisor: Seaboch, Melissa (Salt Lake Community College, Anthropology)
The abundance of collared peccaries (Pecari tajucu) is crucial to study because they are a keystone species that plays a large role in their ecosystems. They consume fallen fruits and nuts, disperse seeds, and provide food for predators. Additionally, they are ecosystem engineers altering the landscape for other species. Previous studies have shown that collared peccaries at La Selva Biological Station travel in smaller groups (averaging 10 individuals per group) compared to peccaries at other Neotropical sites. La Selva Biological Station is located in northeastern Costa Rica and it consists of both primary and secondary (i.e. degraded) forests surrounded on three sides by farmland. Due to the general decline of mammals in degraded habitats, I predicted that the average group size of collared peccaries at La Selva will be even smaller than previously reported. I collected data at La Selva Biological Station for two weeks in May 2019. I used three census methods: total count sampling (counting all the species in a certain area), line transect sampling (counting all the species I see when I walk through a trail), and point sampling (standing at selected viewpoints and recording the species visible from that location). I observed 39 peccaries in 17 separate sightings. Group size ranged from 1 to 7 peccaries with an average of 2.3 peccaries per group. Eight sightings (20%) were of single peccaries. My hypothesis that peccary group size would be smaller than 10 individuals was supported. Some limitations of the study were low visibility due to the dense forest and the dispersed social organization of peccary individuals within the group. Both of these factors would underestimate the actual group size of collared peccaries. Nevertheless, the results support previous findings that peccary group size at La Selva are smaller than at other Neotropical sites.