Collared Peccary

Overview

The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu), locally called saíno in Costa Rica, is a pig-like ungulate with coarse, grizzled fur and a distinctive pale collar around the neck and shoulders. Adults weigh 17–30 kg. Despite the superficial resemblance to domestic pigs, peccaries are not closely related — they belong to a separate New World family (Tayassuidae) and diverged from Old World suids tens of millions of years ago.

Peccaries live in groups of 6–12 individuals, defending shared home ranges through a well-developed dorsal musk gland. The gland discharges automatically when the animal is alarmed, producing a musky odor that serves as a group cohesion and alarm signal. Their diet is broad — roots, tubers, seeds, fruit, invertebrates — making them effective ecosystem engineers of the forest floor.

Why Tortuguero

The collared peccary is one of only two peccary species in Tortuguero (the other is the white-lipped). Where they overlap, the collared peccary occupies forest-interior habitats and tolerates a degree of trail disturbance that its larger relative does not. Family groups use the dense secondary forest and intact primary forest within the park, contributing to seed dispersal and soil disturbance that favors plant recruitment.

The species is also prey for jaguars — peccary trails and jaguar ranges overlap substantially, and collared peccary abundance is one indirect indicator of jaguar habitat quality inside the park.

How to see them (honestly)

• Detection: You will smell or hear them before you see them — a sharp musk odor and the sound of multiple animals moving through leaf litter simultaneously.
• Best conditions: Early morning walks on quieter trails, especially along the forest interior tracks. Avoid the main tourist corridors during peak hours; collared peccaries retreat from sustained human noise.
• Encounter behavior: Groups typically flee when they spot a person. Stand still; they often circle back at a distance. Approach slowly and avoid eye contact.
• Do not corner them: A cornered peccary will defend itself. Maintain distance and let them pass.

Status note

The IUCN classifies Pecari tajacu as Least Concern with a stable global population. The species’ wide dietary flexibility and habitat tolerance across desert to humid forest make it resilient to moderate landscape change. In Tortuguero, it benefits from full legal protection and the park’s intact lowland forest matrix. No conservation concern locally.