Chacoan Peccary
This “rangy big pig,” as University of Connecticut biology professor Ralph M. Wetzel characterized his 1974 discovery, was a big surprise—a Pleistocene Epoch survivor of a species thought to have died out ten thousand years ago. The Chacoan peccary, a relative of pigs, boars, and warthogs, weighed in at more than one hundred pounds, the largest and most unusual of the three known peccaries. Wetzel found it in the wilds of Paraguay after interviewing the natives about a mysterious pig variously called tagua, pagua, or cure’-buro (“donkey-pig”). Wetzel stated that it differed from other known peccaries by its larger size; longer ears, snout, and legs; and proportionately shorter tail. In 1975, Wetzel formally named the species Catagonus wagneri, the Chacoan peccary or tagua.
Karl Shuker, in his book The Lost Ark, adds an ironic twist to the story: “Following its ‘official’ return to the land of the living, news emerged that for a number of years prior to this, and wholly unbeknownst to science, its hide had routinely been used by New York furriers to trim hats and coats.”
Today, the Chacoan peccary is known to exist in Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. Unfortunately, it has also become an endangered species. As often happens when species long thought to be extinct are rediscovered, this peccary may have been found only to be lost in the near future to habitat destruction and overhunting.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Loch Monsters,Sasquatch, Chupacabras, and Other Authentic Mysteries of Nature
Written by Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark – Copyright 1999 Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark
