A Tapir Gallery Online Reprint

TPF News header
Vol. 4, No. 2 ~ February 2001                         A publication of the Tapir Preservation Fund ~ Palisade, Colorado, USA


Emilio and the challenge grant

In early January, Paul Beckham challenged us to raise $500 for Emilio Constantino in Colombia. We’ve raised $200 of that, and when we reach $500, Paul will match it. Emilio works with all of the American tapir species. There are only a few Baird’s tapirs in Colombia - in a very distressed area - and we wanted to tell you a bit about how Emilio approaches their conservation.

He plans to research the population and distribution of Baird’s Tapir in northwestern Colombia to aid in developing a conservation strategy there.

Emilio’s research methods involve searching the areas that not only previous studies, but also zoologists and hunters, have indicated contain tapirs. This research is not only painstaking but physically taxing: “Because this region is covered by deep jungles, the approach has to be done on foot and by boat, looking for the animals, their tracks and trails, and also interviewing hunters among the indigenous [peoples] and settlers.”

Tapir Center underway

Several months ago, you saw Anders Siren and his project on the Club Tapir funding list. His project will be back again next month. Meanwhile, TPF has committed to sending him $150 every month. You can read the whole story at: http://tapirs.org/news/tayja-saruta.html

Several months ago, Anders wrote us about a lowland tapir near his village in Amazonian Ecuador. This semi-tame tapir roamed the village freely, including entering the villagers’ huts and eating their food. Despite its forward behavior, even the hunters of the village took care not to shoot the tapir while they were out hunting and the tapir was wandering in the nearby jungle.

But the tapir was growing rapidly. Anders wondered if he could build a nature center some distance from the village, with the tapir as the star attraction. Anders now writes that he has gotten volunteers who will begin helping take care of the tapir soon, and that other people are interested in contributing indigenous wildlife to the center. Still more people are keeping a friendly eye on the tapir, reporting to Anders when they sight it or its tracks. He is encouraged by this “genuine interest for this project.” But, even though he’ll have some volunteer help, and he does much of the labor himself, an assistant’s salary will be needed to maintain the safety of the tapir and the small sanctuary, and that’s where our ongoing funding will help the most.

To avoid potential legal disputes over the land, Anders has paid for the following improvements with his own money: clearing a quarter-hectare of forest, constructing a small house of natural materials, and planting the area with plantains and fruit trees. He reports, “The house and fruit trees . . . will be part of my contribution to the creation and management of the ‘tapir center’.”

TPF’s money, and funds from Club Tapir, should Anders win the vote, can now go to paying the salary of a tapir keeper, buying corn for the tapir, and possibly possibly buying or transporting another local tapir to the center.

Anders told us: “Running the tapir center will cost about 90-120 USD per month for salaries, and about 20 USD per month in food for each tapir. I am willing to continue contributing part of this with my own money, but some external support will be necessary.” We are hoping that our contributions, plus whatever Club Tapir votes Anders wins, will help make the Amazonian tapir center a reality.

Remember, you can always earmark donationations for this or any tapir project even if you don’t see it on the list.

The monthly Kaimu report

Masayuki Adachi, keeper at the Chiba Zoo in Japan, sent us some more photos of the sturdy and delightful Kaimu. Kaimu, you might recall, is a baby a male Asian tapir born on September 4, 2000, who displays unusual white markings on his neck. We thought you’d enjoy this photo.

Kaimu, Chiba Zoo, Japan
Kaimu (Chiba Zoo, Japan). A quick look at the international studbook
for this species did not reveal a link with the white-marked tapirs
in the Rotterdam Zoo. Photo © 2000 Chiba Zoo


Update from Brazil

Patricia Medici has good news from Morro do Diabo State Park, where she continues to capture, collar, and track lowland tapirs. She reports that her assistants on the project are all wearing “Paul’s boots,” which means that the boots financed by Paul and Elaine Beckham to outfit her team are now in use. And, with the continuing success of her project, almost all capture methods she and her team have used have been successful: pitfalls dug in the ground, box traps set up along tapir trails, and darting the tapirs with tranquillizers from platforms and from the ground. She reports she is getting “excellent data” as the project moves forward. Read more about Pati’s lowland-tapir-collaring project at: http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/lowland/medici/

When we can, we’ll be putting a report online from the January capture round, but don’t look for it until March or so . . . we’re still up to our ears in accounting. Meanwhile, Patrícia also has a deadline. She’s finishing up her Masters thesis - on black lion tamarins - a study in which she was already involved when she took up the challenge to work with tapirs.

Metro Boston Chapter, AAZK, gives $500 to Baird's Tapir Project

TPF extends its thanks to Kim Zirpolo, outgoing President, and all members of the Metro Boston Chapter of the AAZK. Their funds were earmarked and will be donated to the Foersters’ “Baird’s Tapir Project” in Corcovado National Park, Costa Rica. The check noted: “From Moth Ball Proceeds,” and we had to ask. Katie Roberts, the chapter’s new President, told us that each year they hold a “creative black tie” event and fundraiser in the butterfly pavillion - hence the name “Moth Ball.” This year it was a rousing success. Congratulations, and thank you!

Brief notes

Take a trip through the inside of a tapir skull! Dr. Matt Colbert’s new web site takes you there: http://www.ctlab.geo.utexas.edu/dmg/clado/projects/synapsids/Tapirus/linksfr.html

You can see scans of the skull of Tapirus terrestris displayed in digital slices, plus a very clear drawing showing muscles of the face and trunk. And if you've got QuickTime, you can download movies that let you take a trip through the tapir's head! Click on "About this project," and then on the "muscle figure" link.

Patrícia Medici found some beautiful carved wooden tapirs exclusively for us. The artist works at the park in Brazil where she conducts her tapir project. You can see him carving the tapirs, too, and read about why he started. We’re trying to put a special fundraiser on eBay each month until October to help bring people from tapir range countries to the First International Tapir Symposium in Costa Rica. Our first one, two unique balsa wood tapirs donated by Ian Rose of the Oriente Fund, fetched $152.50. Our new fundraiser, up by about February 15, will be . . . “nearly” terra cotta tapirs! After about the 15th, you can search eBay for “TPF Fundraiser,” and we’ll also publish the URL in Tapir Talk. For now, here’s a picture:

Nearly terra cotta tapir
We asked Audrey Jakab if she could finish one of her graceful ceramic
Baird’s tapirs in real terra cotta, but the clay wasn’t that type.
Finally, she found a shiny glaze that approximates the color.
The “terra cotta” tapir comes with the last platform available, and
the tapir is the only one in this color.


Tapir Conservation, the newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group, will be delayed until about April. We’d hoped to have a fall issue out, but work intervened. Those of you who have paid for subscriptions will still get the number of issues you’ve paid for. Your payment for the fall issue will be applied to the spring issue, etc. We appreciate your support and your patience.

Tapirs in books and music

eleven@rsacc.com writes: A Japanese punk band called Melt Banana has a song called "Tapir's Flown Away.". . . It's the only place tapirs have in the world of music that I'm aware of.

Sheryl responds: “Also, back in the 1970s - do you remember the Fugs? One of them, Ed Sanders, made a solo album. . . . In one song, Jimmy Joe the Hippybilly Boy wore a "petrified purple tapir snout as an athletic supporter" to the big inter-school track meet. It was among the many things that got him "snuffed out of school." I had the distinction of owning the tapir that inspired the lyric. His snout wasn’t purple or petrified, but the drummer on the album, Johnny Ware, had met my tapir and thought he was memorable.”

Heidi Frohring sent us a letter, quoting one of her friends: “I'm reading Tom Robbins's latest novel, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates. Here's a quote: ‘Around a bend, three tapirs, the mystery beast from Kubrick's 2001, waded the stream. According to Juan Carlos, most of Peru's tapirs had been killed off by hunters, depriving the animal of its right to inhabit the world and depriving the world of living proof of what would result were a racehorse to be mated with Porky Pig.’”


Editors:
Sheryl Todd, tapir@tapirback.com
Kate Wilson, kmwilson@mindspring.com



Club Tapir winners for January 2001

1st place: Sharon Matola, Macal River Valley, Belize

Our total Club Tapir donation this month is $590 - only $10 short of our $600 record last month. The $472 Sharon receives from Club Tapir this month will help in her ongoing battle against the Chalillo Dam, which threatens tapirs and other wildlife in Belize's Macal River Valley. The current amount puts our total contribution to her work at $3065.

On January 25, Sharon reported: "I have been working with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on a documentary about the dam. They came here with an objective mind, but it did not take long for them to see the bad profile of this project emerge. They got stunning interviews from the villagers of Cristo Rey." This is a village that is going to suffer if the dam is built. Sharon hopes to send us photos as the situation develops. The documentary will be aired in Canada, home of Fortis, Inc., the corporation behind the scheme to build the dam.

A press release by Toronto's Probe International stated that a recent study by the World Commission on Dams found that "efforts to 'rescue' wildlife [affected by dams] have met with little sustainable success." It said, "Belize has 'cheaper, cleaner generat-ing options that don't threaten the country's wildlife and riverine ecosystems' [and] a study by Canadian consultants Agra-CI Power found that electricity imports from Mexico would be cheaper than Chalillo. . . . The Belize electricity utility's own data indicates that bagasse-fueled cogeneration plants are a commercially viable generating option for Belize's sugar and citrus growers. . . ." In spite of these findings, Fortis continues with plans to build the dam.

2nd place: Jeremy Holden, Sumatra, Indonesia

All of the projects were nearly tied this month, which is very unusual! With the second largest number of votes, Jeremy’s share of the donation is $118. This brings Club Tapir’s total contribution to his work to $1344. This month you won’t see Jeremy’s name listed for voting. That’s because he asked us to leave his name off the list and let other projects have a chance. Jeremy will be busy for the next few months processing and writing up data he’s already gathered so it can be useful to other researchers and conservationists. We’re happy to have had a chance to support his work, and hope to see his name on the list in the future.

Club Tapir Donor List for January, 2001

Masayuki Adachi, Japan
Kevin & Janet Anderson, USA
Gilia Angell, USA
Michelle & Scott Babcock, USA
Jo Ann & Cemil Bayrakci, USA
Corinna Bechko, USA
Barbara S. Boon, USA
Alex Cárdenas, Panamá
Oliver Cartwright, England
Sean Culpan, Scotland
Sharon Danielsen, USA
Nicola DeBolt, USA
Irma and Guenter Drewnitzki, Germany
Karin Drewnitzki, USA/Germany
Ellen Dwight & Ken Aron, USA
Rachel T. Emmer, USA
Kevin Flesher, USA
Heidi Frohring, USA
Della M. Garell, USA
Robin Gill, USA
Alice Gilley, USA
Greater Cleveland Chapter, AAZK, USA
Werner Haberl, Austria
Chrissi Hadley, USA
Shannon Hiemstra, USA
Peter Hnath, USA
Hodge Family, USA
Dana Hoffman, USA
Brian Hunt, USA
Stephan Hunziker, Switzerland
Akira Ito, Japan
Ann Iverson-Dawson, USA
Audrey Jakab, USA
Sally & Harvey James, England
Kathy Knight, England
Carol Langford, USA
Dean Leverett, England
Rob Lyman & Christine Kim, USA
Amy Marshall, USA
Patricia Medici, Brazil
Denis Milam, USA
Derek Mix, USA
James Nelson, USA
Michael Niemeyer, USA
James Norton, USA
Judith Norton, USA
James Powell, USA
Justine Powell, Australia
Jennifer Raines, USA
Carol Reid, Canada
Mark A. Reid, Canada
Ayéssa Rourke, USA
Andrew Schultz, USA
Peggy Shaver, USA
Toshio Shiraishi, Japan
Wendy Skriver, USA
Timothy Somers, USA
Tamsin Spargo, England
Michele Stansbury, USA
Lauren Svitil, USA
Alex & Susan Sze, USA
Gary & Beth Todd, USA
E.V. Todd, USA
Ted and Lois Todd, USA
Marguerite H. Tucker, USA
Elizabeth Weaver, USA
Jill Wheeler, USA
Kate Wilson, USA
Sally Woodcock, England
Woodland Park Zoo, Asian Forest Volunteers, USA
Chantal Wright, USA
Wendy Zhang, USA


All tapirs are endangered species.
Saving tapirs helps save the rainforest.


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