At Km 475 a rough road runs 9km south to FORTÍN TOLEDO. An important Chaco war site with a combatants’ cemetery and well-preserved vestiges of trenches, it is perhaps more often visited for the Peccary breeding project PROYECTO TAGUÁ. The principal objective of the project – overseen by San Diego Zoo – is the reproduction and reintroduction of the Chaco peccary (taguá), a pig-like animal that was known only from fossil remains until its remarkable discovery alive and well in the Paraguayan Chaco in 1976.
Today all three known species are bred here, the taguá being the largest and shiest species, and the other two being the bad-tempered white-lipped (tañykati) and the mild-mannered collared (kure’i).
Check out the aggressive threat displays of the male whitelipped – releasing a foul-smelling fluid before dashing towards the observer and gnashing the enormous jaws together to produce a blood-curdling, bone-crushing sound that makes you glad they are behind bars. The project has been a huge success and large numbers of all species are maintained at the site. Launched in 1985 with just three animals, by 2007 more than 250 taguá had been released into the wild, representing an important percentage of the known population of this threatened species. No public transport passes Fortín Toledo, so you will need your own vehicle. The site is well-signposted off the Trans-Chaco.
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