The giant peccary is a possible fourth species of peccary, discovered in Brazil in 2000 by Dutch naturalist Marc van Roosmalen. In 2003, German natural history filmmaker Lothar Frenz and he succeeded in filming a group and gathering material, which later served as the type. Though recently reported, it has been known to locals as caitetu munde, which means "great peccary which lives in pairs". It was formally described in 2007, but the scientific evidence for its species status has later been questioned, which also was one of the reasons for its initial evaluation as data deficient by IUCN in 2008. Following a review in 2011, the IUCN moved the giant peccary into synonymy of the collared peccary.
Distribution
The reported range of the giant peccary encompass the south-central Amazon between the Madeira and the Tapajós Rivers and northern Bolivia, reaching the east side of the Madidi National Park. It is restricted to Terra Firme forest. Unlike other peccaries in its range, the giant peccary was reported to mainly occur in pairs or small family groups.
Appearance and taxonomy
According to its original description, the giant peccary is larger, longer-legged, and proportionally smaller-headed than the only other member of the genus, the collared peccary. Compared to the sympatric populations of the collared peccary, the giant peccary also has thinner fur that is grizzled in brown and white, blacker legs, and a relatively faint collar. Five skins of the giant peccary had a total length of, while local hunters have estimated a weight of. Based on mtDNA, the collared and the giant peccaries are estimated to have diverged 1.0–1.2 million years ago, but these results have been considered questionable due to the low bootstrap support, small sample size, and the absence of nDNA and cytogenetic results. In 2011, a review noted that the measurements provided in the initial description were within those generally recognized for the collared peccary, and the behaviors supposedly unique to the giant peccary are also known from the collared peccary. They also provided new genetic evidence showing that collared peccaries from South America form a monophyleticclade that includes the giant peccary. The major genetic split within the collared peccary is between a clade comprising North and Central American specimens, and a clade comprising South American specimens. Furthermore, extensive intraspecific variations are known in the morphology of the collared peccary.
