White-lipped peccary in the Amazon (copyright and photo Jose MV Fragoso)
News article from Virginia Tech University on our research: “Evidence of wildlife passage, such as tracks, scat, fur, and disturbed surroundings, is a more accurate tool for assessing wildlife conservation status than actual encounters with animals, according to an international team of scientists from six universities, publishing in the April 13, 2016, issue of PLOS ONE.” Continue reading “Community livelihoods depend upon accurate wildlife estimates”
White-lipped peccary herd in northern Brazil. Two individuals are radio-collared (Photo Jose Fragoso)
On November 10, 2015, large numbers of white-lipped peccaries moved across the town of Caracaraà in Roraima State, Brazil. Many became trapped in yards or were killed by townspeople. Caracaraà has a population of over 10,000 people.  Jose Fragoso (1997, 2004) described these exceptional movements as possible population level dispersal events or perhaps a herd that abandoned its usual home area after long term persecution by humans.
White-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari) in Roraima, Brazil (photo by Jose Fragoso).
More than 170 white-lipped peccaries were filmed crossing the Rio Branco River in Caracaraà County, Roraima, Brazil in the Amazon. The peccaries were filmed for over 30 minutes when in the middle of the almost 2 km wide Rio Branco by agents of Brazil’s wildlife agency Ibama. Recording made on November 7, 2015.
Village by an Amazonian river (photo by Jose Fragoso)
We have completed a major work describing the sustainability of hunting, farming (land use) and local livelihoods in the tropics. We devised an agent based computer simulation model and explored the relationships between the above mentioned elements to consider what the future may hold for tropical forest biota, ecosystems and peoples.
Iwamura T., Lambin E., Silvius K.M., Luzar J.B. & Fragoso J.M.V. 2014. Agent-based modeling of hunting and subsistence agriculture on indigenous lands: understanding interactions between social and ecological systems. Environmental Modelling & Software, 58: 109-127.