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Tapirs:
Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan
Published 1997
Status and Action Plan of the Lowland Tapir
(Tapirus terrestris)
Continued from Previous Page
Action Plan
The lowland tapir is threatened with local extinction in many parts of South America, because of overhunting and selective destruction of preferred tapir habitat. Therefore, conservation action is needed to both reduce the level of hunting of lowland tapir and reduce the destruction of tapir habitats.
I. Projects are needed to reduce tapir hunting
The unmanaged hunting of lowland tapir is clearly threatening their populations. One of the most urgent actions is to set up effective wildlife management in rural areas of South America.
A. Set up and support community reserves
Studies conducted throughout South America clearly demonstrate that the lowland tapir is more susceptible to overhunting than the other mammalian species used by native and rural people. Unfortunately in many cases it will be difficult to curb hunting of tapir, because such a large-bodied animal has considerable economic value both in terms of subsistence meat and market sale. If tapir hunting were to be curbed these economic costs need replacing, otherwise rural and native people might be unable to overcome the short term costs of reduced tapir hunting.Community reserves are an alternative that can help reduce lowland tapir hunting by having the local communities actively involved in hunting management, especially in the poorer areas of the Amazon basin. Since the majority of tapir are hunted by rural people in remote areas it will be nearly impossible to curb tapir hunting unless these people become actively involved in the management decisions.
The amount of land such community reserves contain is vast. For example, in Brazil alone indigenous territories occupy 800,000km2. Game is sustainably harvested and managed accordingly by the native Amerindians in at least some of these areas (F. Leeuwenberg in litt.).
B. Set up and support private reserves
Private reserves throughout South America have been successful at curbing illegal hunting, especially in the Brazilian Pantanal, certain areas in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, and certain areas in the Venezuelan Llanos. Private landowners recognize their property rights which often makes them effective at managing and protecting their private reserves. In contrast other regions have relatively few private reserves which successfully manage populations of game. In such cases reserve administrators need assistance to design sustainable management.C. Develop and manage buffer zones of protected areas
Buffer zones around protected areas should help reduce the hunting of lowland tapir within the protected area. However, these buffer areas are often overused, which forces rural hunters to penetrate fully protected areas for game hunting. By working with local people protected areas could be better zoned, and management of the buffer zones could be accomplished in ways that could better accommodate the needs of the local people. In turn, this would help local people respect the fully protected areas.D. Work with rural and sport hunters
To help curb deforestation it is vital that rural people continue to value intact forest by using certain plant and animal products. However, this use must be managed in order to avert overexploitation. Therefore people responsible for game management should work with rural hunters, so they may continue to harvest certain game species for subsistence and market benefits, but without overharvesting.Tapir meat provides substantial financial income to rural hunters and therefore they will find a way to sell their quarry even if controls are placed on market vendors. However, rural hunters will curb tapir harvesting if management authorities work with them directly to set up programs designed to exclude tapirs from the subset of harvested game. These programs will not be taken seriously by rural hunters until tapirs are removed from the list of subsistence species (see Action I.E below).
In other cases tapirs are being overexploited by city dwelling sport hunters who have other sources of income. Although a legal quota of game meat is available in city markets, hunters will visit reserves to hunt for sport. Most sport hunters are unconcerned about managing natural resources for sustainable use or are not informed about the importance of reserves to prevent local extinctions. In these cases, repression of illegal sport hunting coupled with environmental education programs for young people living around reserves could enhance survivorship of game species such as lowland tapir.
E. Lowland tapirs must be taken off subsistence lists
It will be difficult to implement management of lowland tapir hunting as long as the tapir remains on the list of subsistence species. Studies in certain regions show that tapir are much more susceptible to hunting than brocket deer, rainforest peccaries, and caviomorph rodents. Therefore, the lowland tapir must be taken off of the subsistence species list to discourage or eliminate rural hunters from selling meat and market vendors from buying tapir meat. Once tapirs are removed from subsistence lists authorities will be able to curb the hunting of tapir through feasible management programs (see Action I. D above).F. Wild caught animals should not be sold as pets
In many city markets throughout the range of the lowland tapir it is often possible to find young wild animals being sold as pets. This has been observed in market places in Iquitos, Peru and Asuncion, Paraguay, and surely occurs in other areas. As long as the young are purchased, it creates t demand for more to be taken from the wild.In order to capture young tapir, the mother must be killed, which lowers potential breeding stocks. Moreover, most tapirs taken succumb to malnutrition or poor care and die which results in more stocks being taken from the wild.
II. Projects are needed to reduce the destruction of tapir habitat
The conservation of lowland tapir requires conservation and management programs for the extraction of forest fruits, to maintain or possibly increase the nutritional intake of these animal populations. The fruit species that need the most urgent attention are the palm species.
A. Set up agroforestry programs
Many communities realize the damage inflicted by cutting palm trees and have begun agroforestry programs that incorporate palms. Rural people will not destroy palm trees when they are grown in small gardens. Interestingly, palms grown in these gardens are much shorter, because of greater sunlight and therefore do not require cutting or special climbing equipment.
Agroforestry plots that contain large numbers of Mauritia flexuosa and Oenocarpus batana palms should be promoted throughout the Peruvian Amazon. Likewise management of palm heart of Euterpe edulis in the Brazilian Atlantic forest should be encouraged (Galetti and Aleixo 1995). This is important for several reasons. For one, inhabitants will have a renewable supply of palm products for market sale and subsistence consumption. In addition, palm fruits in natural habitats will be mostly left for animal food, which in turn should strengthen populations of certain species, especially those of the lowland tapir.
B. Manage timber operation
Timber companies in many areas of rural South America rely on game meat to supply workers and often sell game meat in city markets. Timber operations should be managed so the consumption or sale of tapir meat by these companies is stopped.
III. Reserve design
Reserves should be of suitable size to maintain viable populations of approximately 500 individuals/reserve (Redford and Robinson 1991). Since tapirs are highly susceptible to overhunting, reserves should have as few people as possible. Higher tapir survivorship rates are attained in areas with low human population density due to less hunting. This can be facilitated by limiting access to reserves by closing existing roads and trails and not creating new access routes (L. Salas in litt.). Finally, viable dispersal routes should be maintained between reserves. Corridors are important to maximize genetic heterozygozity and reduce the chance of genetic bottlenecks.
IV. Moratorium on captive breeding
Contraceptive guidelines have been followed because lowland tapirs are the most abundant tapirid in North American Zoos and the least threatened tapir in the wild (Barongi 1994). This should reduce populations of captive lowland tapir to make more room for Baird's tapir and Malayan tapir.
Concluding remarks
If conservation actions for the lowland tapir are not implemented promptly the tapir may become locally extinct in many parts of its range. However, economic needs of local people must be considered when implementing these conservation programs. There are definite long-term economic benefits to conserving tapir populations. For one, the economically important palm forests will be maintained for future use. Indeed, the benefits from productive palm forests might well outweigh the costs to local people of restricting tapir hunting. Setting up these conservation programs will require a concerted effort from management authorities, scientific institutions, universities, and conservation organizations working in coordination with rural communities.