Tapir Talk Archives

18 June 1997

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    ___  __                   Digest   18 June 1997 - Vol. 1, No. 31
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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   -  18 June 1997   -   Vol. 1, No. 31

Contents of this issue
    1. Anesthetics
    2. Root canals
    3. Pitfalls that worked - sort of!
    4. The vigil continues in Brazil
    5. Tapirs and big cats




Return-Path: 
From: "Roberto Aguilar" 
To: "Tapir" 
Subject: Re: Tapir Talk Digest - 13 June 1997 - Vol. 1, No. 28
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 17:56:33 -0500
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal

For Patricia Medici,
Patricia,
I do not have experience with medetomidine in tapirs, since it is new in
the U.S., but am interested in it as an alternative.  The porblem we would
have here is with volume more than drug effect, since the product available
to us would make the dart volume way too large for field use. There are
many altrernatives to narcotics for field immobilizations, but I guess
we'll just have to keep trying different ones in zoos until a safe and
effective protocol can be found. A friend is using tolazoline to reverse
alpha 2 agonists in common tapirs with escelent results and no visible
excitation. The volume is also lower. You may want to talk to someone who's
used it for reversal.
Good luck with your project. 
Roberto F. Aguilar
Senior Veterinarian
Audubon Park Zoo
6500 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA  70118    USA
Hospital - Tel. (504) 861-5109
Personal Ext. (504) 861-2537 ext. 246
FAX (504) 861-6164
email   RAguilar@auduboninstitute.org

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Return-Path: 
From: "Roberto Aguilar" 
To: "Tapir" 
Subject: Re: Tapir Talk Digest - 16 June 1997 - Vol. 1, No. 29
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 18:01:39 -0500
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal

Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

X-MIME-Autoconverted: from 8bit to quoted-printable by able.comm.net 
id SAA25723

for Maria Elvira Loyola,
We have performed numerous root canals (endodoncias) to our Baird's and
common tapirs utilizing standard technique. The only problem was
anesthesia, which required narcotics. The repairs have held well for over 4
years and the animals have ceased to have problems since we changed our
fencing and husbandry practices (separating the male from cycling females
to discourage fence biting.) Hope this helps. 
Roberto F. Aguilar
Senior Veterinarian
Audubon Park Zoo
6500 Magazine Street
New Orleans, LA  70118    USA
Hospital - Tel. (504) 861-5109
Personal Ext. (504) 861-2537 ext. 246
FAX (504) 861-6164
email   RAguilar@auduboninstitute.org

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Return-Path: 
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 12:17:45 -0300 (EST)
From: "Liviam E. Cordeiro" 
To: tapir@TAPIRBACK.COM
Subject: Tapir Talk

Hi all!!!
Here is Patricia.
Well, we are still trying to capture the Tapirs. 
Two nights ago we had some news here. Three Tapirs felt into three
different pitfalls. But...all of them went out!!!
Can you all believe that????
We were checking the box traps and also the pitfalls 4 times.
First, early in the morning (05:30), then 12:00 (just in case!),
17:30 and finally 24:00. Two of the Tapirs felt between 24:00 and
05:30 and the last one between 12:00 and 17:30 (during the day!!).
Well, we concluded that the pitfalls were not deep enough. They were
1,60 meters deep. Another Tapir researcher (Tarcisio da Silva, also 
a Tapir Talker) told me the dimensions of the pitfalls that he 
used with success. 
After that, we came back to the holes and we repaired two of them.
Now, we have two pitfalls with 2,30 meters deep. I put a layer of
rice husk (50 cm) in the bottom of the hole, to prevent the animal
to hurt itself. And now, I have field assistents monitoring the
pitfalls (from plataforms up in threes) during all the time (day 
or night). So...we'll keep trying!!!

This is for Leonardo Salas.
Hi Leonardo!
How are you? 
Well...I read your message in the Tapir Talk Digest 
16th June 1997. You were asking about Tapir killed
by Jaguars. I can tell you many different stories
about that. I'm quite sure that all the big brazilian
cats - Felis concolor (Puma), Panthera onca (Jaguar - 
spotted and black) - kill Tapirs. Since I'm living
in the Morro do Diabo State Park (almost 2 years) I
saw 2 Tapirs killed by cats in the forest. Both of
them had very clear signals ofa big Cat attack. I was
very impressed, because Tapirs are big and very
powerfull, but I suppose that the cats just kill
Tapirs when they are really hungry. Anyway, we also
saw many times, Cats killing cattle on the borders
of the Reserve. Two nights ago, we found an adult cow 
killed by a Cat in a farm pasture close to the 
forest edge. It was still fresh and just part of the
meat was missing. Then, yesterday, during the day, we
decided to come back to the place to check if the carcass
were still there. And we had a big surprise when we saw a 
very big Spotted Jaguar eating the rest of the cow.
Amazing! During the day, about 12:00hrs. I had lunch
watching a Jaguar eating a cow!!!!!!!
Why wouldn't it be a Tapir!?!
And, about one year ago, we were by boat in a big river
which crosses the reserve and we saw a Puma chasing a
Tapir in the border by the river. The Tapir was running
very, very, very fast, but not fast enough. They went
into the forest and we didn't see the Puma killing the
Tapir, but we heared all the vocalizations. Later, we
came into the forest, we tracked the animals and we found
the Tapir carcass, also still fresh. It was an adult female.
At that time, I wasn't working with Tapirs, but I was 
already very interested about them. Now, we are trying to
capture Tapirs and I can suppose some aspects. For instance:
we are waiting the Tapirs high in threes to shoot them from 
distance and they use to visit our bait stations very often
(but we still didn't get the best position to shoot!!!). But,
sometimes, they don't come. And, when they don't come we
can be sure that we will find Cats tracks on the sandy road
close to the bait station. It seems to me that the Tapirs
avoid the places where the Cats are walking during the
night. It happened last night. The Tapirs didn't come
and today in the morning we found big Jaguar tracks on the
road.
Well...those are some of my stories. I'm just crazy about
Jaguars and Pumas, and, for sure it will be my next Project.
Just a question: "Are you from Brazil?"
Best wishes,
Tapir Hugs,
Patricia

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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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