Diet Overlap and Foraging Activity between Feral Pigs and Native Peccaries in the Pantanal.

ABSTRACT: Inter-specific competition is considered one of the main selective pressures affecting species distribution and coexistence. Different species vary in the way they forage in order to minimize encounters with their competitors and with their predators. However, it is still poorly known whether and how native species change their foraging behavior in the presence of exotic species, particularly in South America. Here we compare diet overlap of fruits and foraging activity period of two sympatric native ungulates (the white-lipped peccary, Tayassu pecari, and the collared peccary, Pecari tajacu) with the invasive feral pig (Sus scrofa) in the Brazilian Pantanal. We found high diet overlap between white-lipped peccaries and feral pigs, but low overlap between collared peccaries and feral pigs.

SUBMITTER: Galetti M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4633139 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature