Behavioural Processes 131 (2016) 68–73 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Behavioural Processes jo ur nal home p ag e: www.elsevier.com/locate/behavproc Sexual behavior of Pecari tajacu (Cetartiodactyla: Tayassuidae) during periovulatory and early gestation periods Suleima do Socorro Bastos da Silva a , Yvonnick Le Pendu b , Otavio Mitio Ohashi a , Eunice Oba c , Natália Inagaki de Albuquerque d , Alexandre Rossetto Garcia e , Pedro Mayor f , Diva Anelie de Araujo Guimarães a,∗ a Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Laboratório de Reproduc ¸ ão Animal, Belém, PA, Brazil b Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Ilhéus, BA, Brazil c Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, FMVZ, Departamento de Reproduc ¸ ão Animal e Radiologia Veterinária, Botucatu, SP, Brazil d Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa Amazônia Oriental, Belém, PA, Brazil e Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária - Embrapa Livestock Southeast, São Carlos, SP, Brazil f Department of Animal Health and Anatomy, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Edifici V, E-08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 10 February 2016 Received in revised form 17 August 2016 Accepted 18 August 2016 Available online 20 August 2016 Keywords: Behavior Collared peccary Estrus Pregnancy Reproduction a b s t r a c t The goal of this study was to describe the sexual behavior in female and male collared peccary. Twenty females and twelve males were monitored in familiar and non-familiar units for two 60 days periods. During both phases, we recorded 2747 sexual interactions initiated by 20 different females toward males and 4461 sexual interactions initiated by 12 males toward females. The frequency of sexual interactions initiated per female significantly increased from proestrus to estrus, and they were significantly more fre- quently courted. Females initiated olfactory inspections 15.42 times more and were mounted 22.6 times more during estrus than during proestrus. Nulliparous and primiparous females copulated only when exposed to non-parental males. After estrus, the frequency of sexual interactions received by females sharply decreased. One mating event was recorded during the first gestation week and 31 mountings were observed after the second week. In conclusion, the behavioral monitoring is a useful procedure for the recognition of estrus. Our results suggest that ovulation may be associated with the end of the estrus, which will support future work in assisted reproduction in this species. To promote good handling practices, females of reproductive age should be removed from their family unit of origin. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The collared peccary (Pecari tajacu) is one of the most hunted species in the Amazon (Bodmer and Robinson, 2004) and there is no conservation policy for this animal in Brazil (Desbiez et al., 2012). The reproductive performance of the collared peccary in captive conditions is satisfactory (Mayor et al., 2007b), with a better repro- ductive productivity compared to that of bovines (Nogueira and Nogueira-Filho, 2011). In most tropical forests, subsistence hunting is a traditional practice among local communities for obtaining animal protein as ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: suleima silva@yahoo.com.br (S.d.S.B. da Silva), yvonnick@uesc.br (Y. Le Pendu), ohashi@ufpa.br (O.M. Ohashi), euniceoba@fmvz.unesp.br (E. Oba), natalia.albuquerque@embrapa.br (N.I. de Albuquerque), alexandre.garcia@embrapa.br (A.R. Garcia), pedrogines.mayor@uab.es (P. Mayor), diva@ufpa.br (D.A. de Araujo Guimarães). well as increasing family income (Hoffman and Cawthorn, 2012; Nasi et al., 2011). Over-hunting, however, has led to a situation in which mammalian species in forested habitats are becoming locally or even widely extinct (Bodmer and Robinson, 2004), resulting in “the bushmeat crisis” (Milner-Gulland and Bennett, 2003). Accord- ing to Hoffman and Cawthorn (2012), the inclusion of wild species in captive breeding programs may be a way of alleviating hunt- ing pressures on these species, while allows for sustainable use of those resources, where there is considerable demand for wildlife products. The female collared peccary is a non-seasonal polyestrous species with spontaneous ovulation (Mayor et al., 2004). This species shows a mean estrus cycle length of 28.4 ± 5.45 days, an average proestrus phase of 6.1 ± 0.7 days (range 6–9 days) (Guimarães et al., 2011), and estrus phase of 4.4 ± 2.6 days (range 2–6 days) (Mayor et al., 2007a). Mean gestation period is 138.6 ± 4.8 days (Mayor et al., 2012) and mean litter size is 1.85 ± 0.43 piglets per parturition (Mayor et al., 2007b). In captive http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2016.08.008 0376-6357/© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.