Collared Peccaries

Finally met in person: the Collared Peccary.

Some animals stay under the radar for quite some time, but somehow you do know they exist in the neighborhood. Such is relevant for the peccaries, for both White-lipped and Collared Peccary.
Quite often we see a group passing by in front of one of the trap cams and sometimes you can also smell their strong odor inside the forest. A not so pleasant smell, that I can assure you.

So I was kind of a bit surprised when I met this fellow while I was looking for something interesting to photograph. This Collared Peccary wasn't alone, it was part of a group, but surely it was the last member. At first I thought it was a Capybara but since the river wasn't nearby I 'scratched' that one off the list. Slowly I went closer to this animal and afterwards noticed it was a Peccary.

Collared Peccaries (Tayassu tajacu) are also known as musk hogs. Their living area range from whole South-America, Central-America and even the South part of the States. Locally they are called Pakira's. Their menu exists out of roots, fruits, seeds, insects, reptiles and amphibians (an omnivore).

They almost look like the White-lipped Peccary, but the latter is much bigger and their fur are thicker. I met White-lipped Peccaries when I was volunteering at the Tambopata Research Centre in Peru (2015) and I was able to take close up shots from them. The only thing that I didn't like is that it was hard to breathe when they were around (quite smelly).