Peccaries return to Uruguay after 17-year effort, first wild births recorded

For more than 100 years, Uruguay’s grasslands and river forests were missing a native mammal that once moved through the country in social herds. That animal was the collared peccary, a compact, bristly species that disappeared locally in the late 1800s and is now being brought back through a long and carefully managed reintroduction effort.The comeback is still being watched closely, but the early signs are encouraging. Camera traps have captured peccaries in the wild, researchers have found tracks and other field evidence, and young animals born after release suggest the species is beginning to establish itself again, according to EcoNews.A species that disappeared locallyThe collared peccary, known scientifically as Pecari tajacu, was never extinct worldwide. Instead, it became locally extinct in Uruguay, which means it vanished from the country even though it survived elsewhere in its natural range.Uruguay’s proposed mammal Red List cites 1894 as the last solid record of the species in the country, although there were scattered reports into the early 20th century.The exact reason for the disappearance is still not fully settled, but hunting is considered the most likely main ca...