  SPECIES SURVIVAL COMMISSION |
Tapir Conservation
The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group
Volume 9, Number 1, June 1999
See Table of Contents
From the Chair
Future TSG newsletters will be taking on a new format. Both Sheryl Todd, TSG Deputy Chair, and I will be retrieving communications from tapir reseachers and others, taking the highlights from these items, and presenting this in the TSG newsletter for everyone's information.
This will lead to the production of a more informative and dynamic resource which, we hope, will augment your information banks about the four species of tapir we are trying to conserve into the next millennium.
Recent tapir highlights include the spectacular fieldwork on going in Morro do Diabo State Park in southewestern Brazil. Laury Cullen and his dedicated staff are accomplishing important field investigations on Tapirus terrestris, adding information to the paucity of knowledge which exists about this species. While Patrícia Medici has returned to University, her history of exemplary work in Morro do Diabo with this species will continue to provide strong guidance to subsequent work involving this species.
A new tapir poster has been developed with assistance from Disney's Animal Kingdom and Rick Barongi. See the article in this section for further details. Money from the sale of the posters is slated to go into a fund which will be used to assist tapir conservation. The poster is brilliant. It depicts a Baird's tapir mother with young in a tropical forest stream setting.
The following information, contributed by some TSG members, will provide a look into the latest occurrences with tapirs. As always, both Sheryl and I urge you to submit information so that your work can be shared with others interested in the conservation of tapirs.Conference to include tapir workshop
A tapir workshop will be included in the 4th International Conference for the Management of Wildlife in Amazonia and Latin America. The conference will be held on 4-8 October of 1999 in Asuncion, Paraguay. This event is co-organized by CITES-Paraguay, the Fundación Moisés Bertoni para la Conservación de la Naturaleza, and the Tropical Conservation Programs of the University of Florida, USA. One of the main goals of this conference is to discuss management of wildlife in all of Latin America. The conference will have plenary and workshop sessions solely devoted to starting a Latin American Wildlife Society. For further details, visit the conference web site at: http://www.geoplan.ufl.edu/congreso4/index.shtml or contact Patrícia Medici at epmedici@uol.com.br. (Please note Patrícia's new e-mail address.)
Tapir workshop
During the conference, a special workshop on tapirs will focus on conservation. The organizers of the meeting hope to convene tapir researchers from all over to discuss emerging issues in tapir conservation. Tapir research, management and conservation issues will be addressed. What strategy should tapir conservation take in light of the wildlife management programs currently underway?
As a first step for the meeting, the organizers will ask those present to make short presentations about the current research and management programs in various countries and how they are addressing tapir conservation. Questions such as the following will be considered for discussion:
What wildlife management programs are in place in the countries where tapirs exist? How are they designed to reduce tapir harvest? What are they doing to reduce tapir habitat fragmentation? What are they doing to deal with the habitat already fragmented?
Experiencies of local people involved in management programs will be interesting and illustrative. The conference will ask how recent findings in tapir research can be used to improve current management programs. What type of action may be necessary and which are feasible for tapir conservation in the short and long term? Aspects of funding will also be discussed.
For the meeting to succeed, it is necessary to have as many interested tapir people as possible in Paraguay. The exchange of ideas and experiences, and discussion will contribute to tapir conservation everywhere.
Papers
Two abstracts on tapirs have been submitted for the tapir workshop as of early June:
Patrícia Medici e Cláudio Valladares-Pádua: Biologia da conservação da anta (Tapirus terrestris) e seu potencial como "detetive ecológico" na região do Pontal do Paranapanema - Estado de São Paulo - Brasil (Conservation biology of lowland tapirs and their potential as "landscape detectives" at Pontal do Paranapanema Region - São Paulo State - Brazil).
Jessica Amanzo Alcantara: Estado de la población de tapir de altura (T. pinchaque) en el Santuario Nacional Tabaconas-Namballe - Cajamarca - Peru (Status of the tapir population at Tabaconas-Namballe National Sanctuary - Cajamarca - Peru).
Thank you. We hope to see you all in Paraguay!Richard Bodmer
bodmer@tcd.ufl.edu
Patrícia Medici
epmedici@uol.com.br
Olga Montenegro
olmd@grove.ufl.edu
TSG web site
Our site at www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/iucn-ssc/tsg/ is being visited in increasing numbers. Our main page had 163 visitors in March. The site is used by researchers and conservationists in the field, as well as students in many countries looking for detailed, quality information.
Our aim is to keep the technical side simple and the file sizes small in order to make the site as accessible as possible to people around the world. We recently learned that TSG members in Sumatra were able to download the Action Plan and Bibiography via their local Internet connection. Having the Action Plan accessible instantaneously and at no cost other than standard online charges is a goal realized. In return, we were able to dowload photos and articles for this newsletter from Sumatra and Thailand. While Internet technology has become standard for some of us, it is still new or just on the horizon for others. For all of us, it's a remarkable way of keeping in touch and exchanging information.
Action Plan
Tapirs: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan is available in paperback and on the web. For an online copy, see "TSG web site" article, above. Printed copies can be ordered from:IUCN Publication Services Unit
219c Huntingdon Road
Cambridge, CB3 0DL,
United Kingdom
Phone: ++44/1223/277894
Fax: ++44/1223/277175
E-mail: iucn-psu@wcmc.org.uk
Island Press
Box 7
Covelo, California 95428
Phone: 800-828-1302 or
++1-707-983-6432
Fax: ++1-707-983-6414
E-mail: gipress@igc.apc.org
Hundreds of copies have been distributed throughout the world.
Injured tapir keeper recovering
As we go to press, Lisa Morehead, the Oklahoma City Zoo keeper who was critically injured by a female Malayan tapir on 20 November 1998, is at home. She is undergoing intensive physical therapy to keep muscles usable. Her injuries were extensive, including the loss of her left arm. She has been corresponding by e-mail, and last we heard was adjusting to her prosthetic arm. The Tapir Specialist Group was among the many donors who contributed to the total of $1700.00 raised for Lisa. A month ago she had just begun to use the fund to buy special heating pads to aid her recovery and was considering the purchase of a special fitting for her new arm that would allow to her to work out in the gym. Keeping muscles of both sides of her body toned so they don't atrophy has been an ongoing challenge. There will be additional surgeries in the upcoming months. Lisa thanks everyone for the donations, cards, and good wishes. She says they have helped tremendously in pulling through the difficult times.
TPF activities
The main page of the Tapir Preservation Fund's Tapir Gallery web site receives about 400 hits per week. This does not include those who may have come in on one of the other approximately 350 pages and never accessed the home page. This could mean usage of about 20,000 or more visitors this year to the main page alone. Our mailbag tells us almost daily that when people want to find out what a tapir is, our informational site is easily found. Material from the site is used by everyone from young students to professionals. Our high web visibility attracts researchers and others who are looking for a way to make contact with the tapir community. We routinely connect them with others working in their area of interest.
Not only use of the site, but our incoming mail and requests for materials have been growing this year, making it necessary to begin looking for office assistance on a regular basis.
Club Tapir, our monthly fundraiser for designated tapir projects, was one year old on April 1. During its 14 months in operation, Club Tapir has raised a total of $3853.00 and funded the following:
Georgetown Zoo, Guyana: $1055.00
Craig C. Downer: $1046.00
Belize Zoo: $912.00
Patrícia Medici: $270.00
Ruben Nuñez: $265.00
The Foersters: $305.00
No expenses are taken out of the Club's donations, and recipients of the fundraising flyer also receive the monthly TPF News.
This year, TPF raised $1700.00 for Lisa Morehead, the tapir keeper at the Oklahoma City Zoo who was severely injured by a Malayan tapir on 20 October 1998. A portion of this total was donated by the Tapir Specialist Group. Between April 1997, and April 1999, TPF donated $4800.00 to Ruben Nuñez in Ecuador for his conservation education work with the people of Central Ecuador, one of the remaining strongholds of T. pinchaque. We also assisted in securing grants for this project from the Columbus and Pittsburgh Zoos. We are especially grateful to Kate Wilson, a professional writer and a tapir fan, who volunteered her time. She is now on our Board of Directors as Secretary, joining Marco Herranz, Vice-President, and Sheryl Todd, President.
On 6 May, the Tapir Preservation Fund celebrated its first year as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization. Our future plans include watching Club Tapir grow, generating additional funds for tapir projects through grants, building and improving the Tapir Gallery web site, and conducting the Tapir Talk e-mail group, which this year has aided research in the field and tapir health in zoos. The amount of traffic and mail generated by the web site as well as the continued growth of our fundraising activities tells us that we are providing services that are needed, and to which the general public will contribute. Promoting awareness of these endangered species and providing information and material support that will help with their conservation and well-being have been our primary goals since the Fund's founding in 1996.
Our online gift shop provides tapir fans with gifts and items featuring the tapir - often hard or impossible to find in stores. In return, the gift shop helps fund TPF's projects.
As of 1999, we are not a membership organization, per se, but a sense of membership is fostered by participation in Club Tapir. We are considering the possibility of organization memberships for 2000.Sheryl Todd
President, Tapir Preservation Fund
Funding sources: Lincoln Park Zoo
The Lincoln Park Zoo announced two available sources of funding, the Scott Neotropic Fund and Africa/Asia Fund awards, which have awarded over 126 grants in 19 countries since 1986. The two funds support field research in conservation biology around the world.
The Scott Neotropic Fund focuses on projects undertaken in Latin America and the Caribbean. The fund emphasizes the support of graduate students and other young researchers, particularly those from Latin America. The Africa/Asia fund, launched in 1997, focuses on projects throughout Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Each fund supports projects of young conservation biologists. Between five and 15 projects for each fund are supported each year. The fund awards are seldom greater than US$7500, and most awards fall in the range of $3000-$6000. Initial support is for up to 12 months from the date of award, and the maximum duration of support is two years. The current deadline for receipt of Scott Neotropic proposals is 1 September, and Africa/Asia proposals have no deadline for 1999. Additional information and application procedures can be obtained through:
Web: http://www.lpzoo.com
E-mail: steveed@ix.netcom.com
or write to:
Lincoln Park Zoo, SNF/AA Funds
c/o Director of Conservation and Science
Lincoln Park Zoo
Chicago, IL 60614 USA
Poster of Baird's tapir and young
This poster is from an original painting by former Disney Imagineer Ben Tripp. Ben was one of the original members of Disney's Animal Kingdom design team. Presently he is a freelance experiential designer and screenplay writer working for large entertainment companies. He donated this picture to support tapir conservation.
Mother and baby Baird's tapir deliver a conservation message on this poster produced by Rick Barongi and Lewis Greene of Disney's Animal Kingdom and The Wildlife Conservation Society respectively.
The painting depicts a mother and a week old calf in a forest stream. The local names for the tapir appear around the border of the picture. Macho de Monte (Panama), Danta/Anta (Mexico and Central America), Mountain Cow (Belize), Moli (Kuna Indians) and Tzimin (Mayan).
The Spanish message on the bottom translates to:Rick Barongi
Disney's Animal Kingdom
P.O. Box 10,000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830
Fax: (407) 9390-6386
rbarongi@aol.com
[Ed note: This poster can also be purchased online through the Tapir Gallery Gift Shop.]
Omnivorous tendencies?
We thought we would add this to the ongoing discussion about whether or not tapirs are strictly vegetarian. The following letter showed up in the e-mailbox one day in December, 1998.
Dear Tapirback people,
I found your site on the web and would like to add a little tapir knowledge. I grew up in Peru, near Pucallpa, and occasionally visited tribes in more remote locations. On one such visit when I was 12, there was a pet tapir in the village. I believe it was probably about half-grown. It was about waist-high on my mom, who is is 5'2", and had lost its stripes.
Anyway . . . the indians found a boa in the small clinic they had there. Once the boa was out of the clinic it was killed, chopped into pieces for the chickens, and tossed under the building. (The clinic, like many Amazonian homes, was on stilts.) Several minutes later, while I was playing with some of the boys, one of them looked up and said, "The tapir is eating the snake!" He surely was! He had wandered under the clinic and was eating the pieces of boa that had been left for the chickens!
Sincerely,
Sam Gesch
Next issue: Project Location Map
Please help us create a visual guide to tapir projects around the world. Send us your location, and we'll mark it on a map to be updated and printed each issue.
While we're soliciting your help, let us invite you to send in citations for new tapir literature - either an article you've written or something you come across. Also, please note countries which do not have reports in this issue. The editors will be grateful for your help in making Tapir Conservation as complete a guide to worldwide tapir projects as possible.
CONTACTS
Chair: Patrícia Medici
Deputy Chair: Sheryl Todd
This page is hosted by The Tapir Gallery
Webmaster: tapir@tapirback.com