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TAPIR TALK Digest 20 June 2000 - Vol. 4, No. 28
The Tapir Preservation Fund
The Tapir Gallery: http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/
Tapir Talk Archives and Info: http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/tt.htm
E-mail: tapir@tapirback.com
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Contents of this issue
1. Tapir Gallery mentioned in English publications
2. Web site updates
3. Magpies "scratch down" tapirs: several queries from Stefan Seitz
4. Tapir enrichment question
Dear Tapir Talkers,
I'm sorry for delays. Again, many computer problems, which I hope are fixed now.
I'd like to note and thank those reposonsible for several extremely nice notices in English publications re: The Tapir Gallery. I have a copy of the one in New Scientist, 3 June 2000 (thanks to Peter Dickinson for pointing this out). Thanks to Elizabeth Mistry for her article in the Star in May. I have a copy of New Scientist, but if anyone sees any of the other articles or mentions of the site, could you please contact me or save the page? A few others were discovered but not saved. Here in western Colorado, we have lovely scenery and wide-open spaces, but little access to international publications!
Please mail a page with pubication name and date or a photocopy to:
Sheryl Todd
Tapir Preservation Fund
P.O. Box 1432
Palisade, CO 81526 USA
The timing is good. I've been working on the picture section and making updates to other parts of the gallery. Web site goals for this summer are updating the bibliography, putting up more pictures (the picture pages also contain a lot of the information value on the site), and adding more info about projects. In addition, I hope to post past newsletters from TSG (no promises here). If you have a thesis, proposal, project, etc., that you would like to see on the web site, do let me know. It should be electronic. But even so, HTML coding is slow since none of the software I've used to date has a great interface for HTML. An exception is tables - several conversions handle these very well. Many of you have sent photos, and I'm making progress here. Most of them are now filed where I can find them, and some are online. There are many, many more to go.
Thank you!
Sheryl
tapir@tapirback.com
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Return-Path: <s75@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 17:31:11 +0200
From: Stefan Seitz <s75@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
To: Sheryl Todd <tapir@tapirback.com>
Subject: Tapir Talk
RE: Magpies "scratch down" tapirs
Dear tapir friends,
Because of an increasing interest in articles about tapirs (and
interesting new observations, of course) I'm going to write my next
publication (cf. Tapir Talk Vol. 4 No. 25).
This one is about wild magpies visiting (= pecking food on) captive
tapirs and causing the so called "scratching down" reaction, i.e. lying
to the side with one hind leg stretched in the air.
1. Has anyone already observed interactions between magpies and tapirs
at zoos?
-- I know that caracaras visited lowland tapirs in the Amazon forests,
and magpies have been watched on moose, sheep, and rhino (which have
never been reported to fall down!).
2. Would anybody like to suggest if the tapir's conspicuous reaction
might have been evolved as a social behavior or as a reaction on other
species?
-- In both cases, removal of ticks or other parasites could be the
origin. Because all recent tapir species show the same reaction, it
should be inherited by a common ancestor. Do you know a reference when
Old and New World tapirs became separated? (I guess at least 5 Mio.
years ago.)
3. Is there another well put term that describes the tapirs'?
-- "Scratching down" is excellent for the process of contact and
reaction. But what when they already lay down or when they lift up one
hind leg before (!) being touched?
Thank you for any assistance that makes the article more soundly.
Stefan Seitz
e-mail: s75@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de
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Re-posted from Zoo-Biology:
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Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2000 13:48:47 CDT
Reply-To: zoo-biology@egroups.com
Subject: [zoo-biology] Tapir enrichment
Hi there,
We've got a juvinile Baird's tapir who has been confined to two quarantine
stalls and a small outside pen. He needs daily treatment due to a leg
injury suffered about a year ago. He has a small kiddie pool in one stall
and we're in the process of putting in a larger one for him. His idea of
fun right now is seeing how messy he can get his stalls. His keepers would
like to give him something else to do. :o) Any ideas on enrichment for this
guy would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Christy
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Note: Several good suggestions were made on Zoo-Biology. If you have others, please contact Christy or Tapir Talk. ~ Sheryl
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