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Population Dynamics and Survival Strategies of Two Endangered Ungulates in a Low Water-Availability Site of the Maya Forest of Mexico
by
, ,
Rafael Reyna-Hurtado
1,*
,
Jonathan O. Huerta-Rodríguez
1
,
Alan Duarte-Morales
2,
Itzel Poot-Sarmiento
3,
Lizzi Valeria Martínez-Martínez
4 and
Manuel Alejandro Jiménez-Sánchez
5 1
Department of Biodiversity Conservation, El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Campeche 24500, Mexico
2
Centro de Estudios del Desarrollo Sustentable y Aprovechamiento de la Vida Silvestre, Universidad Autónoma de Campeche, Campeche 24500, Mexico
3
Facultad de Ciencias Químico Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Campeche, Campeche 24500, Mexico
4
Comisión Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas, Calakmul, Campeche 24640, Mexico
5
Centro Universitario de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad de Guadalajara, Zapopan 44600, Mexico
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Animals 2025, 15(9), 1307; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani15091307
Submission received: 2 December 2024
/
Revised: 11 April 2025
/
Accepted: 22 April 2025
/
Published: 30 April 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ungulate Ecology, Population Dynamics, and Conservation)
Simple Summary
In the Maya Forest of Southern Mexico, water is a scarce resource for wild animals. Nonetheless, two of the most important Neotropical ungulates have survived in this dry scenario for thousands of years. Therefore, our objective was to describe the effect of water scarcity in the population of white-lipped peccaries and tapirs in the largest natural reserve in Mexico, Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. We found that white lipped peccaries disappeared when water was too scarce, while tapirs remained in the few ponds with water. We conclude that white-lipped peccaries are sensitive to water availability, and since climate change is affecting the rainy seasons, this species might be in grave danger of extinction. Therefore, it is of great importance to preserve the few ephemeral ponds to help these and other species to survive, for they contribute to the dispersal of many plant species that are used by local people, and they also represent a source of food for some human communities.
Abstract
White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) and Central American tapir (Tapirus bairdii) are two endangered ungulates that inhabit the Maya Forest in Southern Mexico. These species need water sources almost every day to fill their ecological and physiological needs. How have they survived in a landscape like the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve where the water is very scarce and temporal? We analyzed 10 years of data for both species, collected through the intensive use of camera traps located in 18 ephemeral ponds of the Mexican side of the Maya Forest. These data in combination with occasional data on individual movements of both species collected with radiotelemetry allowed us to describe changes in occupancy, abundance, and movements that show the different strategies these species must cope with during dry periods. The white-lipped peccary population passed through cycles and disappeared from periods of water scarcity, and later, they appeared and stayed close to a few sources of water while the tapir population remained constant and occupied almost all sources of water throughout the years. This contribution increases the ecological knowledge and survival strategies of two endangered tropical ungulates of Mesoamerican Forests that have been disappearing at alarming rates in other forests of the region.
Keywords:
occupancy; ephemeral ponds; abundance; co-occurrence; species conservation
