IV INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT IN
THE AMAZON AND LATIN AMERICA

4 - 8 October 1999, Asuncion, Paraguay.

TAPIR WORKSHOP REPORT

By Olga Montenegro, Patrícia Medici and Richard Bodmer

The Tapir Workshop was held on October 5, 1999, in Asuncion, Paraguay, during the IV International Congress on Wildlife Management in the Amazon and Latin America. The workshop lasted for four hours of intensive work and included four different sessions. The first session was an introduction to the workshop and welcome to the participants (about 60 people).

The second session consisted of presentations made by twelve tapir researchers from eight different countries: Patrícia Medici (Brazil), Diego Lizcano (Colombia), Juan Pablo Juliá (Argentina), Enrique Richard (Argentina), Jorge Segundo (Bolivia), Paulo Rogerio Mangini (Brazil), Sonia Foerster (USA-Costa Rica), Clara Solano (Colombia), Nancy Vargas (Colombia), Olga Montenegro (Peru), Richard Bodmer (USA-Peru), and Eduardo Naranjo (Mexico). The presentations included several topics regarding the three Latin American species of tapirs (Tapirus terrestris, Tapirus bairdii and Tapirus pinchaque). The presentations made it possible to become acquainted with each other’s most recent activities and plans for the future, and also to make a preliminary diagnosis of the tapir population’s status in the study sites covered by the participants. Diego Lizcano, Clara Solano, and Nancy Vargas showed that the mountain tapir’s original distribution in Colombia was considerably reduced, mainly due to habitat destruction and fragmentation. Diego Lizcano is beginning a new phase of his project. He will capture and radio-collar four animals at one of his study sites to investigate their use of area and habitat. Sonia Foerster and Eduardo Naranjo showed that the Central American tapir was affected by depletion of habitat and poaching in Costa Rica and Mexico. According to Jorge Segundo’s presentation about his work in Bolivia, the lowland tapir, despite having the largest distribution range of the three species, has been over-hunted in some areas. The majority of the locations in which tapirs still survive are protected areas, and their situation outside of these areas is a very serious problem. Richard Bodmer, during his presentation, showed that some rural communities in the Peruvian Amazon are monitoring their own subsistence hunting of lowland tapir in order to help sustain the tapirs’ numbers. The ongoing field research conducted by Patricia Medici in Brazil showed that lowland tapirs are able to move through the landscape, probably searching for resources or using the nearby forest fragments as a refuge. Medici’s plans for the future include investigating why these animals visit other forest fragments, using her previous three years’ worth of data to investigate the tapirs’ preferred habitats, and the capture of animals in the smaller fragments of the Pontal Region. Sonia Foerster and Paulo Rogerio Mangini, both veterinarians, discussed the veterinary aspects (immobilization, health studies, etc.) of tapir studies in Costa Rica and Brazil respectively. Sonia is the responsible veterinarian for her husband’s ecological study on Tapirus bairdii in Costa Rica, and Paulo Mangini is responsible for veterinary aspects of Medici’s project in Brazil. Juan Pablo Juliá and Enrique Richard talked about their experience in captive management and breeding in Argentina, demonstrating that there is potential for ex-situ conservation of the lowland tapir. Olga Montenegro presented tools to determine potential areas for tapir conservation.

The third session consisted of a short presentation by Patricia Medici about the Tapir Specialist Group and Tapir Preservation Fund. Previous to the workshop, Sheryl Todd (President of the Tapir Preservation Fund and Deputy-Chair of the Tapir Specialist Group) and Sharon Matola (Chairperson of the Tapir Specialist Group) prepared press releases about both groups, and copies of these releases were distributed to workshop participants. Copies of the most recent Tapir Conservation newsletter (a publication of the TSG) were also distributed. During her presentation, Medici talked briefly about the group’s main activities and objectives, and also about the need to improve communication among tapir people and participation in the TSG and in TPF activities.

The fourth session consisted of another short presentation by Sonia Foerster, who discussed her intentions to organize an International Tapir Meeting for 2001. According to her presentation, the meeting will probably be held in Costa Rica or Miami in June 2001. She has recruite several others, including Rick Barongi (TAG - Tapir Advisory Group), Sheryl Todd (TPF/TSG), Sharon Matola (TSG, Belize Zoo), and Donald Janssen (San Diego Zoo) as initial planners.

Approximately 60 people attended to the workshop - a turnout that was extremely gratifying for the organizers. It was also exciting and rewarding to see the amount of valuable and useful information that has been gathered by researchers. This data is fundamental for tapir conservation. We would also like to mention that most of the research has been done on a long-term basis, and this is important for understanding the real issues involved in the conservation of tapirs.

We would also like to highlight that while not making presentations, other tapir researchers were present at the workshop and contributed by asking questions, making suggestions, and creating discussions. Some of these researchers were Joe Fragoso, Silvia Chalukian, Andrew Noss, Daniel Brooks, Robert Wallace, and Lilian Painter.

Joe Fragoso has studied Tapirus bairdii in Belize, and is still interested in tapir conservation. Andrew Noss is working on Tapirus terrestris in the Bolivian Chaco, and is concentrating his efforts on capturing and radio-collaring animals at his study site. Daniel Brooks studied Tapirus terrestris in Paraguay several years ago, and was one of the editors of the Tapir Action Plan (1997), together with Richard Bodmer and Sharon Matola. Robert Wallace and Lilian Painter, both from Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), are starting a new project on Tapirus terrestris (and several other animals) in Bolivia. They will be using satellite radio-collars for their studies.

Others who attended the workshop were Andrew Taber (WCS), Cláudio Valladares-Pádua (IPÊ - Brazil), Laury Cullen, Júnior (IPÊ - Brazil), Kent Redford, Peter Feisinger, Bruce Young, William D. Toone (San Diego Zoo), and several other researchers and students from Latin America and the United States.

Finally, the workshop was also an excellent opportunity for the researchers to meet each other, to exchange ideas, and also to have fun. We would like to say that we are really pleased with the way the workshop turned out, and that it was an excellent opportunity to spread "tapir fever." We thank the Congress organizers, who helped tremendously in putting everything together; we also thank Fundación Moisés Bertoni, Florida University, Sheryl Todd (TPF and TSG), Sharon Matola (TSG - Belize Zoo) and all the participants who were with us during the workshop’s long sessions. Special thanks to all the tapir researchers who did their best to make it to Paraguay and to share with us all their amazing experience and insights!

Patrícia Medici
Olga Montenegro
Richard Bodmer
 

TAPIR PEOPLE WHO ATTENDED THE WORKSHOP:

Patricia Medici (IPE - Brazil) epmedici@uol.com.br
Paulo R. Mangini (IPE - Brazil) pmangini@uol.com.br
Diego Lizcano (Colombia) ecolvege@zeus.uniandes.edu.co
Juan Pablo Juliá (Argentina) jupaju@tucbbs.com.ar
Enrique Richard (Argentina) enrique.richard@tucbbs.com.ar
Jorge Segundo (Bolivia) kaaiya@roble.scz.entelnet.bo
Sonia Foerster (Costa Rica-USA) shernz@aol.com
Clara Solano (Colombia) dnatura@impsat.net.co
Eduardo J. Naranjo (Mexico) enaranjo@sclc.ecosur.mx or enaranjo@chisnet.com.mx
Olga Lucia Montenegro (USA-Peru) olmd@grove.ufl.edu or olmd@ufl.edu
Dr. Richard Bodmer (Florida University-USA) bodmer@tcd.ufl.edu
Laury Cullen (IPE - Brazil) lcullen@stetnet.com.br
Claudio Padua (IPE - Brazil) ipe@ax.ibase.org.br
Robert B. Wallace (WCS-Bolivia) wcsmadidi@zuper.net
Joe Fragoso (FAU-USA) jfragoso@fau.edu
Silvia Chalukian (Argentina) silchalu@vianetworks.net.ar


LIST OF PRESENTATIONS:

1. Conservation Biology of lowland tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) and their potential as "landscape detectives" at Pontal do Paranapanema Region, São Paulo State, BRAZIL". Medici, E. P. & Valladares-Pádua, C.
2. Tapir (Tapirus terrestris): diet and management in an environment of mountain forests (Horco Molle Experimental Station), Tucumán, ARGENTINA. Richard, E. & Juliá, J. P.
3. Population status of the mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) in Colombia. Lizcano M., D. J. & Cavelier, J.
4. Tapirus terrestris in the Bolivian Chaco. Barrientos Segundo, J.
5. Veterinarian aspects of the study of Tapirus terrestris in the wild at Pontal do Paranapanema Region, São Paulo State, BRAZIL. Mangini, P. R. & Medici, E. P.
6. Effects of the anaesthetic and health studies of a Tapirus bairdii population in Costa Rica. Foerster, S.
7. Tapir population status at the Peruvian Amazon. Bodmer, R.
8. Status of the three species of tapir in Colombia. Solano, C. & Vargas, N.
9. Identifying tools for the conservation of tapirs at the Colombian Amazon. Montenegro, O. L.
10. Tapirus bairdii in Mexico. Naranjo, E.