Imprensa: "Big Pig-Like Beast Discovered"

[Eduardo Ribeiro]

Apesar de não se tratar exatamente de lingüística indígena, a matéria abaixo
(publicada em http://www.livescience.com/animals/071102-new-peccary.html) é
interessante como exemplo do conhecimento que as populações tradicionais têm
e que a ciência ainda está por descobrir.

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*Big Pig-Like Beast Discovered*


By Robin Lloyd, LiveScience Senior Editor
posted: 02 November 2007 01:21 pm ET

A new species of pig-like mammal called a peccary has been discovered in the
southeastern Amazon region of Brazil, a scientist announced today. It is the
largest peccary in the world, about the size of a large dog.

The newly named beast (*Pecari maximus*) was found in the basin of the Rio
Aripuanã and confirmed to be a distinct species via a genetic analysis
conducted by the Leiden Centre for Environmental Sciences in the
Netherlands.

Though new to science, locals already knew about the creature. Tupi Indians
called it *Caitetu Munde*, which means "great peccary which lives in pairs."


Dutch biologist Marc van Roosmalen of the University of Leiden recently was
doing some field surveys in the area and saw the unusual mammal.

"One day I was looking at some monkeys, and I saw three peccaries pass in
front of me totally silent," van Roosmalen told LiveScience. "They appeared
and then disappeared without making any noise."

"Later, I asked the locals what I had seen," he said. "It shows that you
really have to see things and then ask people what you've seen. They are not
going to tell you otherwise. It's normal to them. It turns out to be their
most hunted animal."

The new finding was published in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal *Bonner
zoologische Beitrage*.

Peccaries are hoofed animals closely related to swine and hippopotami. Until
now, only three species were known to science—the collared peccary, the
white-lipped peccary and the Chaccoan peccary.

Measurements of the new peccary's body and skull confirm that the new
species is larger than the other peccary species. The giant peccary has
longer legs and its fur markings are completely different, van Roosmalen
said.

The new species also behaves differently from its family members, the
white-lipped and collared peccaries. These species are very social and found
in large to very large groups (even up to hundreds of individual animals in
the case of the white-lipped peccary), while the giant peccary is only found
in pairs or in small family groups with one or two offspring.

Also, the other peccary types root in the ground for seeds and roots. The
giant peccary eats mainly fruit and exhibits little or no rooting behavior.

The giant peccary has a gland that is active in other peccary species and
used to mark territories as well as each other. However, the new peccary is
scentless, van Roosmalen said.

"I think it's another adaptation to predation pressure from big cats," he
said. "Through evolution, they cannot afford to be so stinky as the other
ones."

The habitat of the giant peccary is limited to dry wooded areas in a small
region of the basin of the Rio Aripuanã. The researchers therefore expect
the giant peccary population to be small and recommend that this new species
should be placed on the Red List of threatened species of the International
Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
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