  SPECIES SURVIVAL COMMISSION |
Tapir Conservation
The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group
Volume 9, Number 1, June 1999
See Table of Contents
Thailand
Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus)
Camera-trapping reveals the status of Malayan tapirs in southern Thailand rainforest remnants
by Tony Lynam
Despite a plethora of studies of tapirs in Latin America, there is virtually no published information on the current status of Malayan tapirs (Tapirus indicus) in Southeast Asia. Existing databases provide only basic information on the known or expected occurrence of tapirs in protected areas, but not of distributions within these areas (e.g. MASS wildlife database for Thailand housed at Mahidol University). Interview surveys of forest guards and local people can point to specific areas where tapirs are present in remnant habitats. However, to gain detailed information on tapir abundance and habitat use, and threats to their survival, other methods are required.
Malayan tapirs (Tapirus indicus) top, and tigers are caught by the camera in Thailand. Both of the above photos were supplied by Tony Lynam, Associate Conservation Ecologist with Wildlife Conservation Society, New York.
Camera-trapping has offered one timely solution to this problem. Camera-traps have been used for recording wildlife since the early 1900's (Shiras 1906) and were actually used to document tapirs on Barro Colorado Island in the 1920's (Chapman 1927). In their most advanced form, wildlife moving on forest trails take their own flash photographs when they trigger infrared beams linked to automatic cameras (Wilson et al. 1996). The camera-traps are a camera and infrared device housed in a weatherproof housing. The units are secured to trees with bicycle locks, thus ensuring against loss or damage by over-curious humans. Despite the availability of this technology for over 10 years, only recently have camera-traps been used to systematically census wildlife populations. In the 1990's camera-traps were used to monitor levels of wildlife and human traffic in Sumatran rainforests (Griffiths and Schaik 1993) and to census tiger populations in India (Karanth 1998).
In Thailand, tapirs are one of fifteen species considered endangered by wildlife law (Royal Forest Department, 1992). Two recent ongoing studies are helping to rectify the paucity of information on tapirs in the country. In 1997, the Wildlife Conservation Society and Thailand's Royal Forestry Department embarked on an ambitious field program aimed at gaining information on large mammals in rainforest fragments via camera-trapping. Surveys of forests along the Thai-Malaysia border revealed that tapirs ranged from lowland valleys less than 200m ASL to high mountain peaks above 1,400m ASL. Tapirs occurred in forests recently disturbed by logging as well as primary unlogged rainforest. Tapirs coexist in the area with tiger, elephant, gaur and indigenous tribal people known locally as the Sakai or Jahai people.
Balahala is the local name given to the forests in the survey area. There are two parts to this forest; Hala is an extensive forest area of over 1,100 square kilometres which is contiguous with over 3,000 square kilometres of habitat in northern Malaysia. The second area, called Bala, is a 160 square kilometre fragment which is tenuously connected to the larger area via a fringe of vegetation on the border. Strangely enough tapirs appear to be at least as common in the Bala forest as they are in the larger Hala forest. At Bala, camera-traps recorded tapirs moving as pairs or single individuals. In one sequence of 11 photographs, a mother and young tapir lay down in front of the camera as the young suckled milk from its mother.
Camera-trap photographs of tapirs in the smaller Bala forest show animals with deep scarring, apparently not from hunting by humans but instead from attacks by tigers. Some individuals can even be identified in a series of photographs by their scarring patterns. How do tapirs use the available habitat at Bala and how might they avoid predators and human disturbance? In a follow-up to the camera-trapping study, Mr Suwat Kaewsirisuk, Chief of the Royal Forest Department's Halabala Wildlife Sanctuary (the area was gazetted before officials realized they had got the name backwards!) is looking at how tapirs utilize different habitat types, including forest edges at roads and areas cleared for agricultural around the sanctuary. Tapirs tend not to follow predictable routes of travel so instead of using camera-traps along established trails to monitor tapirs, transects are established away from forest edges, and tapir sign (tracks and dung) is recorded along the transects. The encounter rate of sign along the transects provides information on habitat use, and suggests which areas tapirs might be avoiding.
Both simple and technologically advanced methods of survey can each provide different but complementary information on the status and distribution of tapirs in habitat remnants across their range. The ongoing studies of tapirs in southern Thailand described here are one attempt at filling in the gaps in information. Clearly there is a need for longer-term ecological studies of this endangered species in the region.
REFERENCES CITED:
Antony J. Lynam PhD
Associate Conservation Ecologist
Wildlife Conservation Society
P.O. Box 170
Laksi, Bangkok
Thailand 10210
Tel/Fax: +66-2-574-0683
E-mail: tlynam@wcs.org
Indonesia
Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus)
Photo-trapping in Sumatra
Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. This photo was taken by a camera-trap set by Jeremy Holden of Fauna and Flora International. Scars on tapirs help to identify individuals.
The photo [above] shows one of our phototrap pictures of a wild Malayan tapir taken in the forests of Sumatra. I am currently sorting through all the tapir images we have trying to identify individuals. This is usually impossible to do with any great accuracy because the only diagnostics are scars or wounds. These eventually heal or things are confused by new wounds. One useful diagnostic is damage to the ear. This seems a common injury, but whether torn by thorns or rattan or by agression between rival tapir we have no idea.
This photo shows an individual with both ear damage and one blind eye. It's unfortunate for the tapir but useful for me when it comes to identifing him in later photographs. This particular animal was living mostly in buffer forest comprising stands of old rubber trees and regrowth. At the time this picture was taken he had a mate with an almost-adult calf.
Jeremy Holden
Fauna and Flora International
PO Box 42, Kantor Pos
Sungai Penuh, Kerinci
Jambi 13007, Sumatra
Indonesia
pop@padang.wasantara.net.id
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