Patrícia Medici: Capture Round, June/July, 2000

A Tapir Gallery Conservation Profile:

INSTITUTO DE PESQUISAS ECOLÓGICAS
(Institute for Ecological Research)

An International Partner of Wildlife Preservation Trust International

Click on any image to enlarge
All photos on this page © Copyright 2000 Patrícia Medici or Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas.
Maps © Copyright 2000 Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas.

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY OF LOWLAND TAPIRS (Tapirus terrestris) AND THEIR
POTENTIAL AS "landscape detectives" IN THE PONTAL DO
PARANAPANEMA REGION - SÃO PAULO STATE - BRAZIL.

COORDINATOR: PATRÍCIA MEDICI

FIELD REPORT: 6th ROUND OF CAPTURES - JUNE/JULY 2000

SOME INFORMATION ABOUT IPÊ: IPÊ is a non-profit non-governmental-organization that works for the conservation of biodiversity in several Brazilian ecosystems. IPÊ's conservation work is of critical importance, considering the country's rich biodiversity and the need to work towards its conservation. IPÊ works with a small core of highly motivated professionals. Each core group consists of a coordinator, a junior assistant, and a number of professionals hired on a project basis. The board of directors plays an important role in IPÊ's management, acting as a multidisciplinary group of consultants, available any time the institution needs their expertise. The organization was created in 1992 in Piracicaba, São Paulo State. Its headquarters is located in Nazaré Paulista, a beautiful site, only one and a half hours from the city of São Paulo. Although most of IPÊ's projects are in the Atlantic Forests of the State of São Paulo, it has been active in many parts of Brazil.

The IPÊ Team.
Objectives:

Conduct research on rare and endangered species and implement conservation management plans to integrate wild and captive bred animals using reintroduction and translocation techniques;
Promote environmental education programs among local communities;
Work with local landowners to convert their forest fragments into protected areas or private reserves;
Promote training programs for professionals in conservation biology;

Orientation maps:

Map of Brazil showing São Paulo State.	Map of São Paulo State showing the Pontal do Paranapanema Region.	The northern portion of São Paulo State showing remaining forest fragments of 400 hectares or larger. The largest forest area (lower left) is Morro do Diabo State Park.
This map shows the decline of forest in São Paulo State through the years. From left to right (top row), the years and percent of remaining forest are given as 1500 (82%), 1845 (80%), 1907 (58%), (bottom row) 1952 (18%), 1973 (8%), 2000 (3%). The remaining forest is shown in yellow and green; the deforested area is in brown. Near the point at the far left, you can see the forested patch of Morro do Diabo State Park.	Morro do Diabo State Park, showing landmarks, nearby fragments, and locations of new captures.	Morro do Diabo State Park, showing locations of all collared tapirs since the beginning of the project.

INTRODUCTION: For the past three years, my team and I have been capturing and radio-collaring lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in Morro do Diabo State Park and surrounding landscape (Pontal do Paranapanema Region - extreme west of São Paulo State, Brazil). The main objective today is to investigate the tapirs' potential as "landscape detectives," showing me the most used dispersal routes and pathways in the landscape, and thus the potential areas to be conserved and restored as wildlife corridors. The project has caught and radio-collared twelve animals so far, and has collected much data. This data is in the process of preliminary analysis. I was able to use five of these eight animals as landscape detectives, as they frequently wander outside the large forest source that is Morro do Diabo State Park (35,000 hectares). They normally cross open areas (pastureland) to reach the nearest forest fragments. I suggest that these individuals use the smaller fragments as "stepping stones" during their temporary movements outside main forest sources.

Specific objectives of this study include describing and mapping these dispersal routes through the landscape. Preliminary information about the tapirs' dispersal behavior has shown that this large and, to some extent, generalist mammal, is still surviving in very small forest patches, mainly because it is able to exploit surrounding resources and move long distances between forest fragments. It is necessary to restore and conserve the most used dispersion routes or corridors, keeping landscape connectivity and, therefore, the metapopulation scenario for this large keystone species in its threatened ecosystem.

During the past three years I've been capturing tapirs mainly inside the park. Only two of the 12 radio-collared animals were caught outside of the park's limits, inside the agrarian reform settlement by the west border of the protected area. During 2000, I intend to conduct four rounds of captures and radio-collar at least 10 more animals. From 2000 onward, I'll concentrate my field efforts on the north edge of the park and also on the smaller, isolated forest fragments around it.

The first round of captures of the year was conducted from the13th to the 27th of March, 2000, and the second one from June 26 to July 18, 2000. The other two rounds are scheduled for October and December, 2000, but those will only take place if the project gets enough funds to conduct them.

The plans for the 2000 rounds of captures are as follows:

to capture at least one male inside the area of the previously radio-collared females (by the west border of the park); DONE
to recapture Joana and Paulete, adult females radio-collared three and two and a half years ago, respectively. We want to recapture them and replace the collars depending on their health;
to capture a new animal close to the park's headquarters; DONE
to capture new animals by the north and northwest edges of the park;
to capture new animals at Santa Maria, Alcídia, Água Sumida, Santa Zelia, Minerva, Ponte Branca and, Tucano forest fragments.

The west border of the Park is the place where we've been concentrating most of our capture efforts over the past few years. This is an important region of the park because we have found that the west border is one of the edges of the park from which the tapirs leave the protected area to visit the Ribeirão Bonito forest fragment, about 1-2 km from the park's edge. This fragment is located inside one of the biggest landless settlements of the Pontal region. Until July, 2000, we had already radio-collared four females and one male in that area, and according to our preliminary data analysis there is considerable overlap between their home ranges. Despite that, important information was missing, because we didn't have enough data on males in that area. But, during the sixth round of captures in June/July, 2000. we caught one more female and two new males by the west border.

Another reason to work by the west border is to recapture Joana and Paulete, two radio-collared adult females. They were captured by June, 1997 (three years ago), and January, 1998 (two and a half years ago), respectively, and the Telonics transmitters we use are made to last for three years. Joana was our priority for the March captures, but we didn't succeed in catching her. We tried again during the June/July captures, but again we did not succeed. Paulete will be our priority for the October captures.

Another place where we want to capture more animals is in the area around the park's headquarters. We've had two radio-collared tapirs in that area, a male who died two months after the transmitter was installed, and a female whose collar we had to remove because she had sores on her neck. We still want to have a radio-collared tapir in that area because these are the animals that are used to human presence and could potentially be habituated in the future for behavior studies.

Regarding the north and northwest edges of the park, we want to radio-collar animals there because these areas are relatively close to five other smaller forest fragments around the park. My suggestion is that tapirs also leave the park from those edges and visit the Alcídia, Água Sumida, Santa Maria, Santa Zelia, and Minerva forest fragments. We've seen lots of tapir tracks crossing the roads and pastureland between the park and the forest fragments already mentioned. Those would be other areas where we would be able to investigate the tapirs' potential as "landscape detectives."

Another way to investigate how the tapirs move between fragments and the park would be to capture tapirs inside the Alcídia, Água Sumida, Santa Maria, Santa Zelia, and Minerva fragments. We would be able to check whether there is movement between the fragments and also between the fragments and the park.

Ponte Branca and Tucano are private forest fragments that are not as close to the park, but I suggest that tapirs do move between them. Since they are fairly close to each other and our institution has a very good relationship with their owners, this would be a potential area for the establishment of the first corridor in the Pontal region.

SIXTH ROUND OF CAPTURES - JUNE/JULY 2000: The sixth round of captures was conducted from June 26 to July 18, 2000. PRONABIO, PDA, and the Tapir Preservation Fund - Anonymous Donor, provided the funds. The field team had five permanent members: Patrícia Medici, Principal; Dr. Paulo Rogerio Mangini, the Responsible Veterinarian; Luiz Homero Gomes Pereira and José Maria de Aragão, two field assistants who have worked for the project since its beginning; and Bryan Schoenecker, a trainee and visitor from Denmark. Eight other temporary field assistants participated during the beginning of the capture round while we were building the pitfalls: Jose Manoel de Souza, Roberto Aragao, Antonio Pereira, Ezequiel Arantes, Jose Aparecido da Silva, Cicero Lima, Gessi Oliveira, and Valmir Machado. Also, during the first week of the field work there was a film crew (four people) from a national TV channel. They were making a film about IPE's work in the Pontal Region, including work with tapirs, jaguars, tamarins, and landless social projects.

A complete report is presented below:

06/26/2000 to 06/30/2000: The fieldwork begins. During the first four days we spent some time in the forest checking the previously-established bait stations (two months before that, the field assistants Homero and Zezinho had set up salt, guavas, and mangos at bait stations) and we also started locating Joana via our radio telemetry equipment. I also spent time talking with the field assistants to determine where to dig the pitfall traps. This time, the team decided to not concentrate the efforts on using the tree platforms as we did in March when we were testing this methodology for the second time. The methodology that brought us the mos success in the past was the use of pitfalls, and we decided to not spend too much energy using the platforms to capture new animals. Pitfalls had already proved to be efficient and safe, and I didn't want to loose time with the platforms. As in March, there was no activity at all at the bait stations by the north border of the park. On the other hand, we found very clear and much-used tapir pathways by the northwest edge and decided to dig pitfalls there. There are two small forest fragments by the northwest border of the park (Santa Zelia and Minerva) and they are even closer to the park than the fragments by the west and north edges. I had been in that area before, but hadn't seen as many tapir tracks as we saw this time. There are sugar cane plantations between the park and the aforementioned forest fragments and there were tapir tracks crossing the plantations in the direction of the fragments.

This picture shows the demarcation line between sugar cane plantation and a forest fragment.

An eroded pitfall cover in the sugar cane.

Morro do Diabo (Devil's Hill) rises above the sugar cane.

The bait stations by the west border were, as always, full of tracks. During my discussions with the field assistants we decided that during this second round of 2000, we would keep concentrating our efforts on several aspects:

the recapture of Joana by the west border of the park since we were still able to get some weak signals from her transmitter;
on the capture of new males inside the females' areas, also on the west border;
on the capture of new animals close to the headquarters, and also by the northwest edge.

Once more, we decided to leave the smaller forest fragments for the next rounds to be undertaken this year. In order to be able to conduct a round of captures at the smaller fragments, I would need additional funding, because some of the fragments are located far from the park, and I would have to spend more money on transportation costs. Also, tapir densities are lower in the fragments, and I'm sure we would need extra time to capture the tapirs in these relatively small forests. I'm thinking about planning rounds of captures specifically for each one of the fragments and finding a way to use the farms for a base. I believe that some of the farmers would be happy to host us for a while. This way, we would save a lot of money and would be able to concentrate our efforts on specific goals.

During this sixth round of captures, we planned to utilize several different strategies. We planned to dig pitfalls by the west border and northwest edge, and we planned to use pitfalls and one platform high up in the guava or mango trees close to the headquarters area. Our intention with the platform in the trees was to try to capture the tapirs that had been looking for guavas and mangos since March. The tapirs close to the lodge are very used to the buildings there and visit the area often in search of mangos and guavas. During the field work in June/July the guava and mango trees were not fruiting anymore, but Homero and Zezinho had previously established bait stations under these trees and were supplying the stations with purchased fruit (guavas and mangos). Our idea was to build a platform high in one of the trees and shoot the tapirs from a distance, since several of them were coming to the bait stations every night. Another strategy that would be used to recapture Joana by the west border was to try to dart her from the ground, which would mean radio-tracking her and approaching to shoot from distance. I had eight new collars. During these first days, Dr. Paulo Mangini was still at home in Curitiba preparing for the field round. His arrival on June 30 marked the official beginning of the capture round.

Radio-telemetry equipment, crucial to the project.	Radio-telemetry equipment, crucial to the project.	This is the receiver by which the collars' signals are monitored.
Some of the gear used by the project's veterinarian.	Darts with used with anesthetics to immobilize the tapirs for procedures and collaring.	One of the darts used to deliver drugs to the tapirs.
Drugs used by Patricia Medici's project in the capture and collaring of tapirs.	Drugs used on the tapirs.	Drugs used on the tapirs.

On the day of Dr. Mangini's arrival, we began digging pitfalls. He was to arrive in the afternoon, and I decided it would be a nice idea to have pitfalls ready on the night of his arrival. This would give us one extra night of opportunities to capture tapirs. I had eight field assistants working with me on that day, and we were able to dig two pitfalls at the same time, both of them by the west border. In these pits we had the probability of catching either new animals or one of the animals radio-collared previously. The TV crew filmed the entire process of digging and camouflaging the pitfalls and they interviewed me, but their biggest interest was in filming a tapir inside the pit. From now on, we just had to keep our fingers crossed and wait. . . .

06/30/2000: Once Dr. Mangini arrived we organized all of the capture equipment and met with the team to finalize the planning phase. Our pitfalls were ready on the west border, and there was a chance we could catch a tapir there tonight. We also started trying to capture tapirs around the lodge. At 07:00 pm, the two field assistants went to the platform we had built high in the mango trees over the bait station supplied with mango and guava fruit, while the rest of us stayed at the lodge ready to go to work in case of a capture. The assistants returned at midnight because there was no tapir activity at all, and everyone went to sleep . . . no luck that night.

07/01/2000 to 07/04/2000: During the first days after Dr. Mangini's arrival, we kept digging new pitfalls and checking the ones that were ready early each morning. While our large field team dug the pitfalls, Dr. Mangini and I checked the previously-established bait stations and several other locations to check for tapir activity. By July 4th, we already had three pitfalls by the west border, one under the guava trees close to the lodge and one by the northwest border in the middle of the sugar-cane plantation outside of the park. During this period, we also spent nights up in the platform by the lodge waiting for the tapirs to come to eat the guavas and mangos - but they didn't come. Once more I kept thinking that I was doing something wrong regarding the use of the platforms. Before our arrival, the tapirs were coming to the bait stations very frequently, but as soon as the field assistants started spending the nights up in the platform, the tapirs stopped coming. I had talked to Sonia and Charles Foerster about this methodology several times, and I think that the platforms we use here are build too low when compared with the Foersters's platforms in Corcovado, Costa Rica. In the areas where we'd been working, there were no trees high enough to have platforms seven to ten meters high. Our platforms were about four to five meters high, and I now think that's not high enough. I believe the tapirs can smell or even see people at that height. Since we were digging pitfalls during the day and spending the nights up on the platforms with no result, I decided that we should keep digging pitfalls every day, but would stop using the platforms for awhile. In addition, the team needed some night rest.

From left to right: Roberto, Zezinho, Patricia, and Antonio watch Marinho right before he's darted. Preparing for the manipulation.	Dr. Paulo Mangini prepares the anesthetic while Alessandra, a veterinary student, takes notes.	"Marinho," the newly-capture tapir will soon be anesthtized and fitted with a radio-collar.
Dr. Mangini prepares to dart the tapir.	Work on Marinho begins.	"Marinho."
"Marinho."	"Marinho."	Patricia photographs the teeth of each tapir. Eventually this may help determine the age of each animal.
"Marinho."	"Marinho."	A TV film crew from São Paulo covers the events. From left: Patricia Medici, Dr. Paulo Mangini, Alessandra, Roberto, and Bryan Schoenecker.

Photos of teeth and feet of captured tapirs, and various radio-collars used in the study. (If you are reading this page from a CD, please use your Back button to return here from the "teeth," "feet," and "radio-collars" links.)

07/05/2000: We went to the forest to check the pitfalls early in the morning. Everyone was ready to dig another pitfall after checking the ones we already had. If there was a tapir in one of the pitfalls, we would work on the animal, but if not, we would go dig another new pit. It was about 06:00 am when we started checking the pits by the west border, and to our surprise, we found that a tapir had fallen into one of the pits, but had managed to escape. The animal had climbed right up the wall of the pit! I was amazed by this animal's climbing abilities. This specific pitfall was two meters deep. During our first round of tapir captures in 1997, the same thing had happened three times, but at that time I was using pitfalls that were 1.6 meters deep. After "losing" those three animals, I decided that we would need deeper pits, and we started digging pitfalls that were 2.3 meters deep. After that, we hadn't lost any more tapirs. No animals had managed to climb such high walls. But, this specific pit on the west border this time was only 2 meters deep, because while we were digging it the soil became too hard and we had to leave it at that depth. As it turned out, that wasn't a good idea. I was very sad about this turn of events, but a few minutes later, when we were checking the last pitfall we found a sub-adult male tapir we named "Marinho," that had probably been caught while going to the river - Ribeirao Bonito - the previous night. This was a happy discovery! The pit was located on the west border of the park by the railroad line that crosses through the middle of the park. The train doesn't run here any more, but the line is still there. It's only about 100 meters from where we caught another sub-adult male, "Luizinho," in July, 1998. After taking a good look at the animal, Dr. Mangini and I came back to the lodge. We needed to get all of our equipment and call the TV crew to go with us. Two hours later, we were back on the site, and when everything was ready, we started working with the animal. We had to do everything as fast as we could, because the pit was located in a very open area, in the middle of a dirt road inside the Park, and soon the sun would reach the animal inside the hole. That's not advisable, because it can make the animal's body temperature too high. But the procedures went fine, the drug protocol worked perfectly, and by 11:00 am the field assistants were already making the ramp to release the radio-collared and completely recovered new animal of the project: Marinho. The film crew was happy that they'd been able to film the whole procedure, and they left for Sao Paulo city right after they were finished. The film will be edited during the next few weeks and will be on air nationally in Brazil in a few months. After Marinho left the pit we covered it and decided to dig another pitfall very close-by. That dirt road by the train line is an excellent place to capture tapirs, as they use the road frequently when going to the river. We've seen tracks of several different individuals crossing the area. My field assistants used to call it the "tapir railway." Marinho wasn't the only one to use the road, and there was a chance we would catch other tapirs there. By 05:00 pm the new pit was ready, and we didn't try the platform that night.

07/06/2000 to 07/09/2000: During this period, we continued digging new pitfalls and checking the previous ones every morning. By July 8th we had eight pitfalls ready, covering the west border (five), the northwest border (one), and the lodge area (two), and I decided that was enough. By July 9th we learned that three tapirs had broken the tiles of three different pitfalls at the west border but hadn't fallen in. We could tell that had been an active night there. There were tapir and jaguar tracks everywhere. I was so disappointed. I couldn't believe that had happened! We would have captured three tapirs that day! After some time digesting what had happened, we started laughing. . . . "OK," we said, "It seems these tapirs are getting used to all the big holes we make here several times a year! Smart tapirs!"

We found a huge cage near the lodge, and it took several men to lift it onto the wagon.

It's ready to go.

Homero moves the cage to our capture site with a tractor.

One day, when we were checking the pitfalls and bait stations by the lodge area, we saw a very large iron-and-wood cage stored at one of the park buildings in the administration area. I hadn't seen that cage before, so I went to take a good and closer look. It was a huge cage, 2.50m by 1.50m by 1.50m, and Homero told me it had been there for several months. Someone who works at CESP (the electrical energy department of the State of Sao Paulo) had given that cage to Laury Cullen to be used by his jaguar project. CESP had used that cage to rescue some of the jaguars and pumas living inside the areas that their dams were going to flood. Afterwards, they didn't need the cage and they gave it to Laury, who left it stored waiting for the right time to be used. It's a very strong cage, and as soon as we saw it I started thinking about the possibility of using it to capture the tapirs under our tree platform. Homero and Zezinho loved the idea. We had tried to use cages in the beginning of the project, but didn't have any success. At that time, we had two stainless steel box traps (2.20m by 1.10m by 1.10m) with an opening at each end. What happened was that as soon as we would set up the traps at the bait stations, the tapirs would stop visiting them. During this present round, the tapirs began to return to the fruit bait stations after we left our platforms unattended for awhile. We thought it would be a good idea to leave the cage by the bait station under the platform and see if the tapirs would get used to it and enter. The rest of the afternoon on which we found the cage was spent making a few repairs and alterations, and by evening it was set in place by the bait station. We didn't trigger it, since our only objective was to have the tapirs get used to its presence there. We spread guavas everywhere, including inside the cage. I was very curious to know if the tapirs would come into the cage this time. I thought we would be more successful here in the lodge area, because the tapirs are already used to the presence of humans, buildings, cars, etc. Maybe they wouldn't think the cage was too strange for them to enter it . . . it was worth trying again.

The cage was placed under a tall tree.

Bait in the cage.

Ready for a tapir to enter.

07/10/2000: We woke up early in the morning as always and went to check the pitfalls by the west and northwest border, but there were no tapirs in them. We came back to the lodge and went to check the cage. We were very surprised to discover that a tapir had "almost entirely" entered the cage during the previous night! This animal had eaten most of the guavas we had left the previous evening. Only the ones in the very back of the cage were still there! Now we knew it was possible for a tapir to enter the cage. We left more guavas around and inside the cage and went to check the two pitfalls by the lodge area. And . . . we found a tapir inside one of them . . . but it was "Docinho," the female adult tapir we had first caught in January, 1998, and whose collar had been taken off in November, 1999! In October, 1999, one of the field assistants and also Laury, called me to say that they had seen Docinho and that she had sores on her crest, probably due to the radio-collar. The next day Dr. Mangini, who was in Curitiba at the time, and I rushed to the field to try an emergency capture to check her condition. We arrived at the park that night, and were able to recapture her. She was moving very close to the lodge, and we were able to shoot her from a distance using our rifle, and after four minutes she was anaesthetized. The sores on the crest were in fact caused by the collar, but were not serious - just superficial sores. Despite that, I decided to remove her radio-collar. At that time, we already had 23 months of data collected about her, and I didn't want the sores to get worse. We took off the radio, treated the sores, Dr. Mangini administered some antibiotics, and she woke up a few minutes after the reversal drug was injected. Then, in July, 2000, there she was inside one of our pitfall again! We could recognize her because her crest still showed scars caused by the collar. There were lots of small tapir tracks around the pit, and also on the dirt road close by. There was a young tapir with her when she fell into the pit, and we thought it was probably still around. So, Dr. Mangini and I looked at each other thinking about what to do! I didn't want to put another radio-collar on her because, as I said before, I thought I already had enough data from her. She'd already played her role in the project.

Docinho in the pitfall. Broken roof surround her on the floor of the pit.

Here you can see the scars on Docinho's crest made by the collar.

We had brought a few cattle ear tags to use on the tapirs near the lodge, and we decided to put one of them on Docinho. Our idea was to put ear tags on the lodge tapirs because since they are easy to see, people would be able to identify them according the tag's color, and they would be able to tell us the places and times they had seen these tapirs. This would give us just a bit more data. Then, there was Docinho looking up at us, and we thought she might continue to be one of our project's tapirs if we could put an ear tag on to identify her. Anyway, that was the idea. Dr. Mangini decided not to anaesthetize her completely, but just enough to make her to relax. She was very fat and looked pregnant, and besides that, the young tapir was around. We didn't want to keep her for long inside the pit. Having her relaxed and standing, we would be able to put on the ear tag from outside of the pit. It would be best not to go down in with her if the anesthetic was light. Dr. Mangini administered the drug, and after ten minutes she was already looking down and showing only just a few reflexes. Bryan and I (the field assistants Homero and Zezinho were not with us and we didn't want to spend any time waiting for them to come) lowered Dr. Mangini (upside down) into the pit, and he started trying to fix the tag on her left ear. But, since she wasn't completely anaesthetized, she would move her head as soon as his hands approached her face.

Cattle ear tags for use on the tapirs.

We tried for an hour or so, and she began showing more and more reflex motion, so we decided to forget about the tag. We didn't want to make the anesthesia any deeper. When she was completely recovered from the light anesthesia we had administered, we opened the ramp on one side of the pit, and as soon as she realized there was a ramp, she left running! It seemed as if she couldn't wait another second. As soon as she left the pit, she started vocalizing, and the young tapir started answering! It was a special treat to hear that! We could recognize their separate vocalizations for a long time, and as soon as the two tapirs got together they stopped. Later one of the park's rangers told me that the young tapir with her wasn't a small one, but a large animal of one to two years, showing only a few remaining stripes. The ranger told me he had seen the young tapir running on the dirt road close to the pit before we arrived. It was very nice to be able to see Docinho for the third time. After she left, we fixed the pitfall because we wanted to keep using it until the end of the round. This path was used by a number of individuals, and we could still capture a different tapir in this pit.

Work is finished, the ramp has been dug, and Docinho can leave the pit when she's ready.	Docinho in the pitfall.
Docinho has climbed the earth ramp and leaves the pit.	Docinho returns to the forest.

After fixing the damage, we went to have some rest, because we had plans for the cage that night. We decided that Homero and Zezinho would climb to the platform in the tree above the cage, would wait for the tapirs to enter the cage, and then close it manually with the help of a rope tied to the cage's door. I wanted to have someone close to the cage in case a tapir went inside. I was very concerned about the fact that once inside the cage, a tapir would be very nervous and might injure itself trying to escape. I didn't want that. There was a chance that the tapirs could smell or see people up in the platform and because of this avoid the trap, but Dr. Mangini and I wanted to take the risk. We left some blankets over the cage so that Homero and Zezinho could cover the box in case of a capture. The tapir stays calmer when it can't see people around. By 07:00 pm, Homero and Zezinho were on the platform. We decided they would wait there until midnight, while Dr. Mangini and I stayed at the lodge. We would be in contact by walkie-talkie. It was about 09:00 pm when a loud metallic bang came from the direction of the cage, which was not far from the lodge. In a few minutes, one of the park rangers, Ze Gomes - a great supporter of our project - came running to tell that he had heard the noise of the door falling (he was so excited!) and a few seconds later Homero called on the walkie-talkie to say they had a tapir inside the cage. My first question was whether the animal was calm, and Homero answered: "If you guys don't come fast, this tapir is going to take a nap in the cage . . . it's very calm!" Dr. Mangini, who already had the darts prepared for a capture, and I went over, and there the tapir was inside the cage. What Homero had said was true. The animal was very calm - I could hardly tell anything was in the cage. I couldn't see the tapir because the cage was covered with blankets. But we wondered why the door had crashed down! Homero had been planning to let the rope loose very slowly without making any noise, so as not to scare the animal, but when the tapir entered the cage, all he wanted was to get the door closed and secure the animal. He let loose of the rope, and since the cage is made of iron, the sound of the door closing could be heard all the way inside the lodge! Dr. Mangini approached the trap to check on whether the animal was OK, and it was then that it started moving inside the cage. He took a good look at the tapir and came over to talk to me: "Pati, it's an adult male. Let's start." He already had a protocol for the cage capture, and Homero helped him dart the animal. In ten minutes, our new male was already asleep. We opened the cage door and took him out . . . a big job. We needed four people to move the animal, since he was really big. Some of the rangers came to help us during the procedures. Once the tapir was out of the cage, it was time to work.

We named the next tapir "Mikilique." We work fast, with everyone helping. Here we draw blood samples.

More blood samples.

The male tapir is examined under anesthesia, and numerous ticks are seen in the groin area. Wild tapirs carry many ectoparasites.

I put on the radio-collar, took corporal measurements with the help of Zezinho, and Dr. Mangini collected the ectoparasites and blood samples with Homero's help. The entire anesthesia period was monitored by the pulse-ox meter as we had done with Marinho a few days before. This is an excellent piece of equipment, and it gives us a high degree of security regarding the animals' conditions under anesthesia. As soon as we were finished with the procedures, Dr. Mangini administered the reversal drug, we removed our equipment from the immediate area, and remained a few meters from the tapir. We had decided that we wouldn't put the animal back in the cage. Based on our previous experience with the pitfalls, a tapir's recovery from anesthesia can be turbulent, even using the reversal drugs, and we didn't want that to happen inside an iron cage. "Mikilique," the name we had chosen for this tapir, could hurt himself. And, we were right to avoid that potential problem. Mikilique's recovery was very turbulent. We asked everyone to leave the area, and Dr. Mangini and I stayed with him until he was completely recovered and had walked into the forest. It was about 02:00 am, and since there were no bodies of water close by, we were sure he would be safe. Great . . . two tapirs in the same day . . . everyone was really tired and we still had to wake up a few hours later to check the pitfalls in the morning. What a productive day!

We found a male tapir in the pit and named him "Joao." In this photo he has been darted with an anesthetic.	Joao sedated.	Homero and Dr. Mangini work on the tapir. A covering over his eyes helps keep the tapir calm.
Joao in his new radio-collar.	Equipment used to work on Joao.	Ectoparasites collected from Joao.

07/11/2000: Everyone was very sleepy from our arduous work the previous day and night, when we found "Joao," another male, inside one of the pitfalls by the west border! In one minute, everyone was wide awake, and Dr. Mangini and I went back to the lodge to gather up the equipment while Homero and Zezinho stayed with Joao. The place where Joao was caught was very close to where we had caught Marinho the previous week - only about 500 meters away. We came back to Joao an hour after we had left, and started the manipulation. As soon as the animal was anaesthetized we went into the pit and installed the radio-collar and took care of all the other procedures. I think I neglected to mention this before, but during this June/July's round of captures, we were testing how loose a collar can be and not fall off of the animal's neck. At this time, we had already installed very loose radio-collars on Marinho and Mikilique. I'd already seen the sores on Docinho and Paulete's crests during their recaptures, and I wanted to avoid having this happen to the new animals. The sores were only superficial, and actually wild animals have a very strong capacity for healing, but even so, I don't want to see sores on my tapirs' necks again. Thinking about this, we decided that during this round of captures we would try some loose collars to see what would happen. I wanted the radios to stay on the animals' necks, but I was also interested in their safety and quality of life. Anyway, Joao's radio-collar was also installed very loosely, but when he woke up after the reversal drug and was standing, I realized that it appeared too loose. There was nothing we could do, since the animal was already recovered from the anesthesia and ready to leave the pit. The only thing I could do was to pray for the radio to stay on his neck! But . . . what a surprise when we approached the pitfall to start digging the ramp for the tapir's exit, and we saw that the collar had already fallen off! It lay in the dirt at the bottom of the pit. Once more, I couldn't believe what I saw! Lots of unusual things had already happened during this round of captures: Docinho's recapture, Mikilique inside the cage, and now a radio-collar that falls! Again Dr. Mangini and I looked at each other, and the field assistants looked at us (almost crying!) and we all thought quickly about what to do. Do we just let this tapir go, or do we anaesthetize him again to install the collar a little more securely? At that point, and because of the situation with the anesthetics, it was Dr. Mangini, our veterinarian, who would have to make the choice. He would have to decide if it would be advisable or not to anaesthetize the animal again. He thought about it, and told me he would anaesthetize the tapir once more, but would use a different protocol, a little bit lighter than the previous one. He also said it would be a very delicate situation and we would have to watch the monitor closely to assess the animal's parameters - its breath, heart rate, oxygenation, etc. So Joao slept again, and we installed the radio-collar once more, this time with less play than it had previously, but only a little. When Joao was again recovered and standing, we could see that this time the radio-collar wasn't so loose and that it would stay around his neck. What a relief! We had started the procedures at about 07:00 am, and it was 05:00 pm when Joao was finally released. We waited with him a very long time until we were sure he was fine and completely recovered. As soon as we finished the ramp, he left the pit and we covered it up. What a tiring day it had been once again! It was time to go to the lodge and have some rest. Everyone was exhausted.

Patricia Medici listens for signals from a tapir's collar on a rare frosty morning in the Pontal.

Frost on the windshield.

07/12/2000 to 07/15/2000: Right after Joao's capture, the entire state of Sao Paulo began to get cold. In the mornings, when we woke up to go to the field to check the pitfalls, the grass around the lodge and at the edges of the park and the pasturelands throughout the region would be frozen white. There was ice everywhere, even on the roofs of the houses. One morning, my car was covered with ice, and we had to de-ice the windows in order to see through them. It was -3ºC (26.6ºF) at night. I've never seen anything like it in the Pontal region. Checking the pitfalls was still necessary even though it wasn't giving us any results. There was no animal activity at all. It seemed that all animals were hidden in warm places far away from our pits. We had decided not to use the platform or the cage again. We still had two pitfalls by the lodge and we still had an opportunity to capture more tapirs over there. Besides, no one would be able to spend the night up on the platform, it was so cold!!! By July 15th it started raining, and right after that it started to get warmer again. At least we had some sun during the day. There had been no tapir captures during the cold days - not even tapir tracks! During these days we also took some time to get signals from the last-caught tapirs - Marinho, Mikilique and Joao - every day and night. They were not moving much, but we could get a few activity signals at night. We also spent some time trying to get signals from Joana, Paulete and Chu-Chu, the previously radio-collared females. Paulete and Joana had been completely absent since the beginning of this round of captures, and Chu-Chu was outside of the park in the forest fragment called Ribeirao Bonito.

07/16/2000: We checked the pitfalls early in the morning, but there was nothing. Right after checking all of the pits, we went to get the animals' signals from the landless settlement. There we had a big surprise! We got very strong signals from Joana. We were very surprised and also glad to learn that she was outside of the park, inside the regenerating corridor that almost connects the Park's edge to the Ribeirao Bonito fragment. This would be an excellent chance to recapture her and see if we could take off or replace her three-year-old radio-collar. It was about 07:00 am, and she was moving. We didn't have the capture equipment with us, so we had to go back to the lodge to get everything. We decided to wait a few hours and go back when it was warmer. Joana would probably be resting then, and it would be easier to approach her and shoot the dart from a distance. We were sure she wouldn't leave the corridor during daylight. The tapirs that move between the park and the fragments travel through the settlement during the night, when it's safe. So, we felt sure she would be there when we went back. About 01:00 pm we arrived at the corridor and began getting ready to enter the forest to find her. As we expected, she was still there, and her radio signaled that she was resting. Dr. Mangini prepared the dart and the pistol and gave it to Homero (our best shot) and Zezinho, who were nominated to go in after her.

CO₂ pistol.	CO₂ pistol used for injecting tapirs.	CO₂ cartridge used to fire the pistol.
	This valve monitors the CO₂ pressure in the pistol.

It's amazing how silently Homero and Zezinho can walk in the forest. Dr. Mangini and I stayed by the dirt road that separates the corridor from the edge of the park - a swamp area - and we kept quiet in order to be able to hear the shot. It was about half an hour after Homero and Zezinho entered the corridor when we SAW Joana crossing the road to the park. She was running as if she were being chased! She crossed the road about 200 meters away from us, and we didn't see a dart in her, but we thought it was possible that Homero had shot her, so we ran to follow her. We were concerned about the swamp area because if she were darted, she could fall asleep in the water and that wouldn't be good! But as soon as we started following her, we could hear Homero shouting our names. He told us to come back because Joana wasn't anesthetized. When we reached Homero, he told us he had shot Joana but the dart had broken when it hit her back. He and Zezinho had both seen the drug spreading over the ground where she was standing. Well . . . it was better this way! He said that they had approached her very easily and were able to watch her for about ten minutes. In the beginning she had been lying down, but after a few minutes she sensed them and stood. They were about seven meters from her. She stood for awhile, and Homero waited for her to get into a position where he could shoot. It would be better to shoot into her neck, but Joana didn't give them that chance, and Homero shot into her back instead, since he didn't want to lose the opportunity. He said he couldn't believe it when he saw the drug spilling out of the dart onto the ground! But, even after Homero shot her, Joana stood calmly trying to find out what had just touched her body. Then, suddenly, she left running like crazy! That's when we saw her crossing the road, leaving the corridor in the direction of the park, her home. I was glad there were no cars passing the road at that moment! Anyway, we had lost the chance to recapture Joana, probably our last chance because her radio's signals were becoming weaker and weaker every day. When we get her signals it means that she's very close, as the signals don't cover much distance anymore. At least we had seen her. Homero and Zezinho, who saw her very closely, said that her neck is in perfect condition, and that there were no sores, as we'd had with Docinho and Paulete. But we all thought that she was too thin. When we first caught her in June, 1997, she was very fat and we were sure she was pregnant. A few months after that she was seen with her offspring, and the same thing happened in the next year. This time she looked very thin, but healthy. I hope we'll still see Joana in the future . . . and I hope it will be her inside one of our pitfalls during the next round of captures. I really want to take her radio off! I don't want tapirs moving around with used-up radios.

The field crew named this one "Patricia."	Patricia waits in the pit until the day warms up enough to work on her safely.	Patricia the tapir.
Patricia the tapir.	It's not unusual for the tapir's eye to have mud or dirt caked around the edges.	Darts filled with anesthetic are injected beind Patricia's ear, where the skin is comparatively thin.
Tapir in the pit with darts.	The anesthetic takes effect.	A pulse oxymeter donated by Nellcor, USA, clips onto the ear and allows careful monitoring of the drugged tapir.
Patricia the tapir.	Patricia the tapir.	She's up again.
Patricia the tapir.	Patricia the tapir.	Patricia the tapir.
Patricia the tapir.	Patricia the tapir.	Patricia the tapir.
Patricia the tapir, recovered from the anesthetic and ready for release.	Patricia gallops back into the forest.

07/17/2000: The previous night had been a little warmer, but we still had no hope of finding a tapir in one of the pits. Still, we went to check, of course. And, there we found "Paticia" the tapir (!), inside the same pit where we had caught Marinho some days earlier. This was next to the "tapir railway," close to the train line. She was a sub-adult, much smaller than the previous females I had caught. It was very early in the morning (07:00 am) and we decided to wait until it was a little warmer to start the procedures. Dr. Mangini thought it wouldn't be advisable to work on the animal in such low temperatures. As I said before, this pitfall was located in an open area, and soon the sun would reach the tapir inside, and contrary to the situation with Marinho in the same pit, this time we wanted some sun to warm the animal's body before the manipulation. That time, we had the equipment with us and we started the anesthesia by 11:00 am, when it was considerably warmer. Patricia's anesthesia went perfectly. We put the radio-collar on very similarly to the way we did with Joao one week before (a little loose) and three hours later she was ready to leave the pit. The field assistants wanted to name her after me (Patricia) because she was caught in the same area as Joao, who they named after my husband, Joao Paulo. They said that they were probably husband and wife since they live in the same area. I told them it was fine, but there was a possibility that maybe Marinho, the first male who was caught in the same area, could be Patricia's male. They hadn't thought about that! Anyway, Patricia was released right after her complete recovery from the anesthesia, and we were able to watch her walk down the road. After some time, she left the road and ran into the forest. What a noise! It sounded a hundred tapirs rushing into the forest. I said: "Wow, if this radio-collar doesn't fall off now, it never will. . . ." I took the receiver radio and got some signals from her. It signaled activity (slow bips) and then I was sure she still had the collar around her neck! We covered the pit where we had already caught two tapirs and went home. The next day would be the last time during this round that we would be checking the pitfalls.

07/18/2000: We had decided to start checking the pitfalls earlier than usual, because if we didn't find any tapirs in them, we would spend the day covering all six of our remaining pitfalls. It was 05:00 am when we started. First we went to check the pit by the northwest border. No tapir. We covered it. Then we went to check the pits by the west border, and since there were no captured tapirs, we covered those, too. Lastly, we checked and covered the two remaining pits near the lodge. No tapirs had been caught on this last day of the round of captures. By 03:00 pm all the pits were covered, and we went to organize and pack the equipment. After that, I went to town to pay all of the field assistants who had worked with me, and at night Dr. Mangini and I had a meeting with Homero and Zezinho to talk about the data collection. They are the ones who collect data on the tapirs when I'm not in the field. Both of them have been working for IPE for the past 15 years and have a lot of experience. Since we had caught four new animals in different areas of the park, we needed to establish a new system to collect the data. We spent a few hours discussing that and also some points about the next round of captures, which we were planning for October 2000. After all was finished, we had dinner together to celebrate the success of the June/July round of tapir captures!

07/19/2000: I spent the whole day taking care of the financial report of the field work, organizing the receipts, and making the final payments before my departure. It was already late in the afternoon when I finished.

07/20/2000: I left Teodoro Sampaio very early in the morning and came back home. Dr. Mangini left for Curitiba at the same time.

FINAL COMMENTS: To end the report, I'd like to discuss several points regarding this last round of captures. In March, we had no luck catching tapirs, but this time, during the June/July captures, we succeeded as we had in July, 1998, when we caught four tapirs during a period of one month. There are many factors that had led me to believe that we'd done several things wrong during the March captures. First, in March, as I mentioned in my previous report, we didn't have enough time to work on the captures. Dr. Mangini is a busy professional and teaches at Parana University, and I depend upon his schedule to work on mine. In March, he only had about ten days to be with me in the field, and it now seems clear that this is not enough time to conduct a round of tapir captures. This time, we scheduled the captures during the University's vacation time, and he was able to stay with me for up to 20 days, which gave us more opportunities to capture animals. The pitfall methodology is very good and safe, but it requires time. Once one pitfall is ready, sometimes it takes time for the tapirs to use that path again. They don't use the same path every night. This time it happened that two of the captured tapirs were caught during the night immediately following the day on which the pit was dug. That had never happened before. There is a probability of this happening, but it's not the rule, it's the exception. Also, in March we concentrated most of our efforts on darting the tapirs from a distance (using platforms) because I wanted to give it another try. But this caused us to lose a lot of time, and we were not successful. At that time, we dug only four pits, which gave us only a small chance of capturing any tapirs with the pitfall method. This time, I decided to concentrate our efforts on the pits, as we did in the past with success. We still used the platforms by the mango and guava trees in the area of the lodge, but that's a different situation since the tapirs in that area are used to people. Even so, I have the feeling that they started avoiding the area again as soon as Homero and Zezinho started spending nights up there. Of course I can be wrong, after all we caught Mikilique in the cage - another methodology I had abandoned several years ago - when the field assistants were up in the platform. Up to this point, we've caught 12 tapirs with the pitfalls (Joana, Paulete, Docinho, Luizinho, Chu-Chu, Xuxa, Batista, Gringo, Marinho, Joao, Patricia, and the recapture of Docinho), one tapir in a cage (Mikilique), and two tapirs shooting from the ground (recaptures of the radio-collared tapirs Docinho in November, 1999, and Paulete in March, 2000). In total, we've immobilized tapirs 15 times. I still feel more comfortable with the pitfalls. As I mentioned in my last report, this is the method that we know best how to put into practice. Another factor that I think helped us to succeed this time was that June/July/August is the dry season it the Pontal region and animals in general move more in search of the needed resources, mainly water. Therefore, there is a greater opportunity to capture tapirs. During the rainy season, as it was in March, there is plenty of food for the animals in the forest and the tapirs don't have to move as much as they do during the dry season.

Another interesting point about this last round of captures is that a series of new events occurred. We caught a tapir in a cage, we had tapirs falling into pits that had been dug one day previously, and we had to immobilize a tapir twice in the same day. All these new events have provided us with new experiences, and it's nice because we are always learning. The capture procedure is only a part of the project, since it's followed by the data collection phase. But, in order to be able to collect data about the animals, we need them to wear the radio-collars, and that phase has to be done properly. Also, the capture time is the period when we are able to collect other kind of data, such as corporal measurements, age, sex rates, collection of blood samples for future genetic and health analyses, ectoparasites, etc. We've been learning a lot about anesthesia - different protocols and immobilization procedures. Each tapir is different from every other in terms of anesthesia.

Something else I think is interesting to mention here is the fact that during this last round of captures we caught and radio-collared three new males, and from my point of view, they are the pieces that have been missing in the puzzle. I've already collected years of data on the four females (three adults and one sub-adult) we've caught near the west border, but I didn't have enough data on the males in that area. The only male I had caught over there (Luizinho, a sub-adult) was found dead three months after his capture. I've analyzed his data, but the results don't show enough. I was looking forward to having more males in that area, and now we have two: Marinho and Joao. Now there is another female, too - Patricia. The same is true in the lodge area. We have almost two years of data on Docinho in that area, but the male I caught there in December, 1998, was also found dead a few months after his capture. Now we have Mikilique, and will be able to find out more about the movement of a male near the south of the park.

In addition, all of the new tapirs radio-collared near the west border have the potential to be "landscape detectives." All three of them were caught while going to the river, and it's possible that they were going to cross the river to move outside of the park to visit the nearby forest fragment, as Joana and Chu-Chu do all the time. Only the data collection will show if that's true.

Marinho, Joao, and Patricia were all caught in pits close to each other by the train line that crosses through the middle of the park. That area is very near where we caught Luizinho in July, 1998. It is very interesting that all four of these animals were sub-adults. It looks as if that area could be a "transition" place for tapirs that have just left their mothers and are looking for a "gap" between use areas of adult tapirs to establish their own home ranges. I can't say that's true right now, it's just an impression, but it will be extremely interesting to find out if I'm right about this.

There are still so many questions we have to answer . . . and a lot of work to do! But, here we are and we keep working! Thanks to all who took the time to read to this capture report. It's a pleasure to be able to share all of this. I also hope you enjoy all the pictures we've taken! They show everything I said but with much more detail!

EPILOGUE: On Tuesday, August 8, 2000, as I was preparing this report, Homero phoned with bad news. When they were collecting data that morning, he got signals from Joana. Since her signals indicated she was inactive, he decided to take a look and found that she was dead. That afternoon Homero went back to the field with Laury, and they retrieved her radio-collar. We all thought she was too thin in July, when we saw her, but she had seemed healthy. When she was examined in the field after her death, it seemed that her teeth were old and worn out, and some were missing. This was very sad news, as you can imagine. Our Joana . . . our first and best tapir, the project's "flagship," is gone. It looks like she lived the last three years of life just to give us a chance to know a little bit more about her and the tapirs she interacted with. I'm proud of her!

More about IPÊ's activities in the Pontal
Proposal
Patrícia Medici's CV
Annual Budget
Timetables (2000 - 2002)
Acknowledgements (complete list since the beginning of the project)

|| Patrícia Medici: Opening Page ||
|| The Tapir Gallery Opening Page ||

Write to Patrícia Medici: epmedici@uol.com.br
Write to Tapir Preservation Fund: tapir@tapirback.com