You smell it first, a musky scent on the trail, then hear the clicking of tusks and the grunting, and a herd of dark, bristly, pig-shaped animals trots across ahead with a pale collar around each neck.
Where you’ll see it
The dry forest reserves such as Santa Rosa, Palo Verde and Rincón de la Vieja, in herds of six to twenty. They do not come into Coco.
What to know
Peccaries look like pigs but are their own family, native to the Americas. They eat roots, fruit, seeds and small animals and have a scent gland on the back that gives them the smell. They are social and generally timid. The one situation to avoid is between a herd and its escape route, or with a loose dog, which a herd will treat as a threat and deal with together.
