Tapir Talk Archives

16 June 1997

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    ___  __                   Digest   16 June 1997 - Vol. 1, No. 29
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The Tapir Preservation Fund

The Tapir Gallery: http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/
Tapir Talk Archives and Info: http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/tt.htm
E-mail: tapir@tapirback.com
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TAPIR TALK   -  16 June 1997   -   Vol. 1, No. 29

Contents of this issue
    1. Drugs for tapirs
    2. Tapir dentistry
    2. Do jaguars kill tapirs?



APOLOGY: The following letter should have gone out Saturday, but I got busy
and forgot I had material for Tapir Talk. If anyone is familiar with TAPIR
DENTISTRY, please respond to Maria Elvira immediately. If the letter comes
in to Tapir Talk, I will forward it. BEST WISHES FOR YOU AND THIS TAPIR,
MARIA ELVIRA! And once again, sorry!

Sheryl

====================

Return-Path: 
X-Sender: melcosta@bhnet.com.br
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 20:33:11 -0300
To: Tapir 
From: Elvira Costa 
Subject: Re: Tapir Talk Digest - 13 June 1997 - Vol. 1, No. 28

Hi, everybody!

        Patricia, I never used Medetomidina, I use Detomidina and some times
ago I have used Xilazina too, but this drug give so instable results,
sometimes been good, some times not.
        I'd like to know about the eficience of this drug.

        I'd like to know if anybody has experience on dentistry of Tapirs.
I have one that is with dental abcess (one incisive) and I hope to
anestesiate this animal monday to take one RX and decide what to do.
        It would be good if I have informations on other experiences.

*******************************************************
Maria Elvira Loyola Teixeira da Costa
	Médica Veterinária
					
Fundação Zoobotânica de Belo Horizonte	Fone: 277-7985
   Belo Horizonte - MG - Brasil		Fax: 277-7974

	melcosta@bhnet.com.br
*******************************************************

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Return-Path: 
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 10:24:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: LEONARDO SALAS 
Subject: Re: Tapir predators. A question.
To: tapir@tapirback.com (Tapir)

Hi there,

This is for Patricia and for anyone else who may have some input on 
the subject. 

After seeing tapirs run through very thick bushes and breaking stems 2
inches thick (literally, making a tunnel through the bush) when 
chased, and seeing them dive in the water for over 1 minute (I'm not 
sure if it was longer) many times, I thought "there is no way that a 
jaguar or puma would endure this". So, I decided to ask some friends 
of mine (Ye'kwana hunters) and do a literature search of tapirs 
killed by jaguars. My friends told me that the have seen tapirs with 
claw scars (I've seen them too), but that these were mostly old tapirs.
They were of the idea that only old tapirs or newborns were killed by 
predators. Not the adults. To clarify an important point, jaguars in 
this place are not as big as the ones in Pantanal (there is no cattle 
there - the jaguars I've seen cannot be as big as the ones described 
by Schaller and Quigley from the Pantanal of 120 Kg, they may be 
more around 80 Kg for males).

In my literature search I found (I'm not sure now, it was a couple of 
years ago that I did this) 2 or 3 reports of tapirs "killed" by 
jaguars. One that comes to mind was from Peter Crawshaw in Brazil, 
and he was cautious enough to admit that he did not see the kill, and
thus, the jaguar could have been scavenging. George Schaller mentioned 
jaguars as tapir predators in a few publications, but I never 
saw any real data of numbers of kills. I remember too that Craig 
Downer mentioned pumas eating tapirs. I don't remember if he saw kills 
or not, and how many.

I've seen many peccaries apparently killed by jaguars, and once I saw 
a puma kill a brocket deer. Jaguar studies with data on kills always 
report prey smaller than tapirs (peccaries, turtles, capybaras, etc.).

So, my question is: Has anyone seen, or knows of, jaguars killing 
tapirs? Could it be that, because tapir densities are so low, it is 
not surprising there are few reports of jaguars killing tapirs (and 
indeed, jaguars are predators of tapirs of all ages)?

Cheers,

Leo
salas@forwild.umass.edu


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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sheryl Todd  ~  The Tapir Gallery  ~  Tapir Preservation Fund    
http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/        tapir@tapirback.com 
Tapir Talk info & archives: http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/tt.htm
Co-Editor, IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group Newsletter
P.O. Box 1432, Palisade, CO 81526 USA    Fax (970) 464-0377
"Promoting the Welfare of Tapirs Everywhere"
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