Barquero, G. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2026

Ungulate conservation: Lessons from experimental white-lipped peccary management in agricultural-natural landscape mosaics of the Brazilian Cerrado

Animal population control is widely used to mitigate conflicts between wildlife and agriculture worldwide. Structured, monitored removals are rare in South America, however, and their consequences for wildlife populations as well as their effectiveness in reducing crop damage are little understood. Using eight years of data from an experimental white-lipped peccary management program in an agricultural mosaic in the Brazilian Cerrado biome, we assess how structured, non-lethal removals affect both peccary demography and second-crop corn damage. Leslie removal models based on 6,619 captured individuals indicated that cumulative removals to approximately 85% of the initial population strongly reduced peccary abundance, with limited demographic compensation despite fluctuations in reproductive output. Corn crop damage, quantified with satellite imagery, declined over time and was correlated with peccary population size. Interannual variation in population growth and juvenile recruitment was poorly explained by climate, fire, or landscape composition. Source-sink dynamics likely play a role in maintaining healthy populations at the regional scale. Together, these results demonstrate that sustained and monitored ungulate removals can reliably reduce population size and agricultural damage, supporting coexistence between wildlife and food crop production in human-dominated tropical landscapes.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2025

Navigating human-dominated landscapes: Spatial strategies of a herd forming ungulate in an agricultural-to-natural matrix

Landscapes in which preferred, high-quality habitats are embedded can be viewed as a dynamic matrix that can determine the spatial behavior of animal species. In tropical agricultural lands such as Brazils Cerrado, understanding how wide-ranging wildlife species navigate these settings is critical for biodiversity conservation. We investigated space-use strategies of white-lipped peccaries (Tayassu pecari)--a large-herd forming species and ecological engineer listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN--in a structurally heterogeneous landscape dominated by native vegetation remnants and industrial-scale farms under a legal regulatory framework of agricultural lands, private nature reserves and a national park. Using high-resolution GPS telemetry, we tracked 12 herds across this landscape from 2019 to 2022. Home ranges were estimated using multiple methods (AKDE 95%, KDE 50/95%, MCP 50/95/100%). Landscape composition was classified using MapBiomas land cover data. The herds with the largest ranges (up to 22,166.96 ha) occupied only native vegetation areas, with >99% natural cover, while herds with the smallest ranges (as low as 1,708.72 ha) occurred exclusively in agricultural areas (with >66% anthropogenic cover), and herds in mixed landscapes, composed of agricultural fields intermixed with patches of native vegetation, had ranges between both these extremes. Differences in range size and landscape cover patterns reflect behavioral plasticity in response to matrix configuration, crop availability, and native habitat structure. Our results reveal that landscape configuration and matrix permeability--not habitat amount alone--govern spatial responses in WLPs. Native vegetation patches (Legal Reserves and Permanent Preservation Areas) within crop mosaics functioned as key anchors for herd persistence outside protected areas, reinforcing the idea that such matrices can be conservation assets. Importantly, herds inhabiting agricultural areas exhibited spatial range contraction, which led to conflict with farmers due to their feeding on crops. Increasing peccary occupation in such landscapes is a growing conservation challenge in regions undergoing rapid agricultural expansion. Our work on the movement ecology of a species usually considered as requiring extensive areas of native vegetation indicates its resilience in landscapes dominated by humans. Understanding and managing the landscape matrix is essential for developing coexistence strategies that align biodiversity conservation goals with agricultural realities in the Anthropocene.

ecology↗