Rio De Janeiro: An embattled Dutch scientist claims to have discovered a new species of wild pig measuring over 1.2 metres, nearly twice the size of other Amazon pigs.

Other experts say that while more research is necessary to confirm the species is new, the find is plausible, and that it adds to arguments for more efforts to preserve the jungle habitat.

The findings, published in the October 29 edition of the German scientific journal Bonner Zoologische Beitrage, follow a string of other new species discovered by Marc van Roosmalen since 1996.

Van Roosmalen's success in discovering new species in the Amazon has earned him international acclaim.

In June, it also earned him a 16-year prison sentence for auctioning off naming rights to some of the species to preserve their habitats, a conviction he is appealing.

Van Roosmalen said he discovered the peccary, a kind of wild pig he dubbed Pecari maximus, by accident in 2000 while searching for a new monkey species. "I sensed there was something behind me and looked over my shoulder and saw three huge peccaries walking in a row," Roosmalen said in telephone interview from his home in the jungle city of Manaus. "They came and disappeared like ghosts without making any sounds, that was atypical of peccaries who always go around making lots of noise."

Van Roosmalen said local woodsmen confirmed the existence of a giant peccary called "caitetu munde," which means "giant peccary that lives in pairs" in the Tupi Indian language. 

Source : PTI