Baird's Tapir PHVA Report

Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA)
for Baird's Tapir in Panama

This document has been printed both in Macho de Monte: Population and Habitat Viability Assessment for Baird's Tapir (Tapirus bairdi), Barongi R, Ventocilla J, Miller P, Seal U (eds), IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group, Panama City, 1994 [Spanish/English], and in CBSG (Conservation Breeding Specialist Group) News, 7(1):21-22, 1996. It is reprinted here by permission. All copyrights are retained by the original publishers.

This introduction comes from the 1996 newsletter:

The following is taken from the Executive Summary of the Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) draft report for Baird's Tapir (Tapirus bairdii). The PHVA was our first workshop of its kind in Panama and it was very successful, integrating tapir biologists, local wildlife managers, and Panamanian governmental officials in a detailed analysis of the threats directed against Panama's (and the Neotropic's) largest land mammal.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdi) is the largest land mammal in the Neotropics. Distributed from southern Mexico to northwest Colombia and Venezuela, the species is listed on Appendix I of CITES and is considered Endangered according to the IUCN Red List criteria. It is estimated that approximately 3,000 tapirs still occupy the tropical forests of Panama. There are four primary regions that support T. bairdi: the northern region, including the Bocas del Toro and Chiriqui areas with approximately 1200 animals; the Azuero region, with approximately 50 animals; the southern region, including the San Blas and Darien areas, with approximately 1500 animals; and the Serrania de Maje region, with approximately 60 animals. These four regions are effectively disjunct, resulting in separate populations with no exchange.

A number of serious threats influence the future viability of Baird's tapir populations in Panama. Human-mediated habitat destruction and fragmentation continue in the country; in fact, more than half of the geographical range of T. bairdi has been destroyed over the last 40 years. Poaching of tapirs by humans, for food or other purposes, can also have dramatic impacts on the tapir populations. Tapirs are relatively easy to track and, therefore, easy to hunt. One of the first tropical forest species to be adversely affected by human disturbances, the continuous encroachment of civilization upon tapir habitat can have serious consequences for the future of the species.

As a first step in developing a unified approach for protecting this species from extinction in Panama, the Asociación Nacional para la Conservación de la Naturaleza (ANCON) held a Population and Habitat Viability Assessment (PHVA) Workshop at the Rio Chagres Nature Center, near Panama City, Panama, on 1-3 December, 1994. The Conservation Breeding Specialist Group of the IUCN/Species Survival Commission was asked to conduct the workshop to assist in assessment and subsequent planning. Twenty-three biologists, wildlife managers, and non-governmental organization representatives from the United States, Panama, and Colombia attended the three-day workshop. One purpose of the meeting was to review data from wild populations as a basis for developing stochastic population simulation models. These models estimate risk of extinction and rates of genetic loss from the interactions of demographic, genetic, and environmental factors. Results from these models are then used as a tool for ongoing species management. Other goals included review of the current state of knowledge regarding habitat requirements, species distribution and population sizes, the role of direct threats as factors in the decline of the species, and the role to be played by captive breeding in the long-term management of the species.

The workshop opened with a series of presentations summarizing data on the status of both wild and captive popualtions of Baird's tapir. A brief presentation on the PHVA process, the principles of population biology, and the use of the VORTEX population simulation software package was made as an introduction to the use of the models and the problems associated with small, isolated populations. The participants then formed three working groups -- population biology and modelling, wild populations, and captive populations -- to review in detail current information, to develop input parameters for the simulation models, and to develop management scenarios and recommendations. Stochastic population simulation models were initialized with ranges of values for the key variables to estimate the viability of the populaton using VORTEX.

Modelling tapir populations using VORTEX demonstrated the extreme sensitivity of these populations to adult mortality. Removing an additional 6% of adults from the population through poaching, above and beyond normal mortality, results in a switch from population growth to population decline (poaching is defined here as any form of hunting of an officially endangered species such as Baird’s tapir). This decline does not occur under higher levels of juvenile mortality, as long as adult mortality is low. Additionally, under stressful environmental conditions such as drought, an annual adult poaching rate as low as 3% leads to population instability. Moreover, the risk of population extinction is greatly increased under these poaching scenarios. Taken together, these data suggests that a 3-6% annual adult poaching rate is not sustainable for any of the populations currently existing in Panama. As a result, tapir management planning must investigate strategies for reducing the rate of poaching to sustainable levels.

Considerations of wild tapir population status led to the following recommendations:

A data collection sheet was constructed by the participants for use with local people as a tool to collect important information on tapir population characteristics. With such a tool, it is hoped that more effective conservation of tapirs and their habitat can be effected.

There are currently less than 20 tapirs in the three recognized zoos and private facilities in Panama. The primary goals of captive tapir management include:

It is vital to establish outreach programs for people living in areas of Panama where tapirs exist. Such programs increase awareness and appreciation of the species. Moreover, these programs can be effective in communicating the devastating effects of overhunting. For captive programs to work in Panama, it will be important to make scientific information on tapirs available, translated into Spanish, to researchers in Panama. Furthermore, regarding captive tapir husbandry, it is critical that captive tapirs be managed as a single effective group and held at multiple cooperating facilities. Perhaps most importantly, the participants proposed to form the Panama Tapir Committee, which will be primarliy resonsible for deciding how captive tapirs are managed in Panama and which inter-zoo transfers are to be made.

The goal of reintroduction is a highly desirable one for effective tapir management, but the participants felt it necessary to delay this goal until current threats to wild populations are identified and resolved. While this phase is in effect, disease surveys on captive and free-ranging tapirs are to be conducted in order to identify disease problems in tapirs. Furthermore, research should be conducted on genetics, reproduction, and behavior of tapirs, and husbandry and veterinary protocols should be developed for captive animals.

Effective conservation of Baird's tapir in Panama will be a complicated issue that will require input from biologists, governmental organizations, and local communities. Perhaps only through concerted integration of wild and captive population management can the extinction of Baird's tapir be prevented.

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