Both species of peccaries, white-lipped peccary and collared peccary are important frugivorous in Neotropical rainforest and play an important role in its maintenance. In Mexico, white-lipped peccary is only present in the southeast. Habitat destruction and continuous hunting have caused its extirpation from most of its former range. One of the three remaining large populations of this animal is located in the Lacandon Rainforest, the most diverse ecosystem in México, but it is critically threatened by imminent anthropogenic actions. The study will be conducted at “Montes Azules” Biosphere Reserve in an area of approximately 100 km², at rainy and dry seasons.

The main goal of this project is to obtain all the necessary information about the biology and status of both species to prepare robust conservation strategies that contribute with future management in the region. This information will be of vital importance to evaluate the conservation ostatus of peccaries and the way in which these animals uses its habitat. The resulting information of this study will help us to understand the conservation requirements of both species. This information will then be used by the federal government as baseline in the creation of solid conservation and management plans that in turn will generate priority areas to start conservation actions of peccaries in the Lacandon Rainforest, within the context of the Mayan Forest. Depending on the efficiency and success of our method, we will be able to generalize it and apply it to other areas of the Mayan Jungle.

By getting the relative abundance of both species, we will have an estimation of the abundances for the whole Lacandon Rainforest, this information will be enriched by the interaction with other groups focused in the conservation of the Mayan forest in order to strengthen and synchronize our conservation efforts, creating a solid baseline data that can be use in future monitoring in small, medium and large periods to evaluate conservation actions in the Mayan forest.