A Tapir Gallery Online Reprint

TPF News header
Vol. 4, No. 5 ~ May 2001                         A publication of the Tapir Preservation Fund ~ Palisade, Colorado, USA


Challenge grant for Emilio

Paul Beckham’s challenge to raise $1,000 for Emilio Constantino in Colombia has been met. We’ve raised $505 (our goal was $500). We thank all who contributed. Some of you went way beyond the call in seeing this challenge come to fruition. Our heartfelt thanks for your contributions.

This week we sent Emilio the first $500, which will enable him to stay longer on his expedition into an area where Baird’s tapir has recently been seen for the first time in 20 years. We’ll bring you a report when he gets back.

The tapirs lose a friend

When Paul Beckham first contacted us wanting to donate $10,000 to tapir conservation, he had already been fighting cancer for some time. This week we received the sad news of Paul’s passing. Elaine Beckham wrote on May 7, “Paul died at 8:15pm last night after nearly a couple of weeks of being confined to the hospital bed in our bedroom. His son Jim, my mother and I were by his side. . . .”

On April 29, we had been able to send news that Paul’s final challenge grant for the tapirs had been met. Paul was a generous supporter of these animals, and we will always be grateful for that. His name appears on the Tapir Preservation Fund’s Beckham Endowment, which is currently invested in stocks, as Paul wished. I know you join us in sending all our best wishes to Elaine.

Permanent status for TPF

On April 25, 2001, the Tapir Preservatoin Fund was granted permanent nonprofit status by the IRS. We had been operating under a temporary start-up designation. After three years or so, it becomes necessary to submit forms showing that the greatest percentage of funding comes from the public. This was done after months of putting our paperwork into Quickbooks. Our current status is 501 (c) (3), and your donations continue, as always, to be tax-deductible. Over the next few months we’ll have some interesting financial statistics for you.

Speaking of statistics . . .

For months, the hit counter on the opening page of the Tapir Gallery Web site has been hovering between about 1400 and 1800 visits per week. During the week of April 16-22, we counted 1939 visitors, and from April 23-29, we had 2419. The site has over 500 pages, and the counter only catches those who visit the main Tapir Gallery page. The continued increase of visitors is very exciting, as we know we’re able to get information about these animals to more and more people.

“Les Amante du Tapir”

Remember last month when we asked for volunteers to translate the name of a song? Rob Lyman, whose name you’ll see every month on the Club Tapir donation list, gave sent us this: “I would translate ‘Les Amante du Tapir, Recit et Chant’ as ‘Tapir Lovers: Speech and Song.’“ Thanks, Rob . . . now we know! Rob uses one of our favorite tapir quotes in his e-mail signature: "The tapir is an enigma, a survivor of a gentler and more legendary time, wandering in unique isolation in a world not yet mature enough for its wisdom."
          -Unidentified traveler in Burma, quoted at www.tapirback.com

Oops!

Michael Hutchins, Director/William Conway Chair, Department of Conservation and Science of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), sent us a correction on a story we ran last month about upgrades to the Georgetown Zoo’s tapir exhibit. We had indicated that ZCOG, one of the donors to that project, was a branch of AZA. Michael wrote, “Just a slight correction in your last newsletter, p. 2, second paragraph. . . . ZCOG is a member in good standing of AZA in the ‘Conservation Partner’ category, along with numerous zoological societies and other conservation NGOs.” Thanks, Michael, we do like to keep our information straight!

Hippos and warthogs help save tapirs

. . . In a manner of speaking, they do! With help from Richard Moss of Palisade, Colorado, we’ve managed to add nearly 100 items to our online Tapir’s Friends Wildlife Gift Shop this month. And, people are beginning to place orders. No matter what the animal species, the proceeds go directly into the Tapir Preservation Fund. Our Tapir Gallery Gift Shop has been successful, and it’s been so much fun for us that we decided to branch out. (Even though tapirs are our favorite animal, who can resist the cute plush warthogs, hippos, owls, rubber peccaries and manatees, etc., etc., etc.? We even have a plush great white shark!) If you don’t see the animal you want in the new gift shop, let us know - we’ll try to get it.

The Tapir Gallery Gift Shop remains a separate entity, although orders from both gift shops can be combined to save on shipping cost. The redesigned menu pages in the Wildlife Gift Shop (with thumbnail pictures showing categories) help make it easy to browse or to find what you’re looking for. We think that the redesigned navigation links are also helpful, and we expect to upgrade the Tapir Gallery Gift Shop with a similar design.

Also extremely helpful for the gift shop as well as for the rest of our Web site is a new and improved SEARCH feature installed by TPF’s Vice-President, Marco Herranz. Our old search had become outstripped by our needs. The new one will find every page on the site with your search word in it. And, unlike the old one in recent months . . . it works!

We’ve also got new items in the Tapir Gallery Gift Shop, so if you haven’t been there for awhile, you might want to check in.

      Wildlife Gift Shop:
            http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/gifts/friends/

      Tapir Gallery Gift Shop:
            http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/gifts/friends/tapirs.htm

      Tapir Gallery Main Page (and search):
            http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal


Sherman wins the pool!

When tapirs gamble, they sometimes win - at least Sherman Tapir did this past month. Many of you may remember when our plush tapir, “Sherman,” (named after the real Sherman Tapir at the Toronto Zoo) became the mascot for a library’s online debut in Australia. And recently Sherman also became the mascot of a firehouse in the U.S. He seems to have quite an unusual career path. This month he found yet another pursuit - raising funds for tapir conservation in a most unlikely way. Sherman entered a large basketball pool at the Center for Human Policy in Syracuse, New York. His sponsor, Philip Lambert, was thrilled when Sherman’s name was announced as the winner of the $100 cash prize! (Philip wanted us to know that he helped Sherman make the selections for the pool.) In honor of his win, Sherman’s “parents,” Philip Lambert and Hannah Lambert Schein, donated the $100 prize to Anders Siren’s private tapir reserve in Ecuador. Thanks, Philip and Hannah . . . and Sherman! Your donation is much appreciated. This $100 will be added to the $187 Anders will receive as second-place Club Tapir winner this month, which will be a very nice boost for his project.

Special thanks

In addition to our Club Tapir receipts this month, we met Paul Beckham’s challenge for Emilio Constantino. We also were able to send an extra $100 to Anders Siren. In addition to that, Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman sent $220 which boosted the total in Club Tapir to its record high. We are grateful to all of our donors, and love to see these important tapir and habitat projects supported.

Subject: Need pictures

The exchanges we have every day can be pretty interesting. Here’s one. This turned up in our e-mail box on April 23rd, when Anne Whittemore wrote:

Friends -

A world-class bone site of Miocene age has been discovered six miles from my home in Gray, Tennessee (USA). The discovery was made during road construction in Spring 2000. The majority of the bones found are tapir, and during initial road construction jaws for 11 individuals were found. The professors/museum folk at University of Tennessee-Knoxville have been in touch with people in Mexico/Central America who say these bones are like the Baird's tapir, but not quite. . . . Anyway, I am needing to do an on-demand exhibit for the Friends of the Gray Fossil Site to have ready to go Friday April 27 a.m. Is there any way you could e-mail me pictures of the Baird's tapir?

Our friends group has only recently organized and this is the first display we have been asked to do. Because all the good quality bones went to geologists in the state, we have nothing! I am having to do everything from scratch. Your help will be very appreciated. I did order the rubber tapirs from your gift shop, but they'll not get here in time!

[Four days later . . . ]

Dear Sheryl -

Thanks for the pictures you sent. The display boards look great! I'll take some photos and if you are willing and they come out well, I could send you copies.

On toes - do the different species have different combinations of toes? Or the same number?

Off the 'Net in the Columbia Electronc Encyclopedia the number of toes are given as four on the front feet and five on the hind feet. But, in M.G. Mehl's MISSOURI'S ICE AGE ANIMALS, the toe number is given as 4 on the front and 3 on the hind. I thought when I studied the tapirs in the Gift Gallery that the replicas had 4 and 3. Please clarify!

[As it happens we also have a real Baird’s tapir skull that we were able to photograph for her, which we hope helped compensate for the missing skulls from the dig.]

Tapir Symposium info and registration now online

You can learn more about the First International Tapir Symposium, 2001, and register through the Internet, or you can print forms from the site and register by mail. Please visit:

http://www.caligo.com/tapir/


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



Club Tapir winners for January 2001

1st place: Simon Bolivar Zoo Baird's Tapir Exhibit

Thanks so much to all of you for making this another record month! In April, Club Tapir collected a total of $935! But that’s not all - your generous donations included money for other projects as well. Read more about it in this month’s TPF News. Our first-place Club Tapir winner for April (Simon Bolivar Zoo) will receive $748, bringing our two-month total for the project to $1236. This was the last month for fundraising on this project, since a construction team from the Houston Zoo will go to San Jose, Costa Rica, during the next few months and complete as much work as possible with the funds available. We’ll keep you posted, hope for some photos, and many of you will be able to see the results while at the First International Tapir Symposium in November.
            Symposium registration and info:
            http://www.caligo.com/tapir/

2nd place: Anders Siren and his Nature Sanctuary

This month’s second-place winner is Anders Siren and his private Nature Sanctuary, located in the lower-elevation jungles of Ecuador. It’s not unusual for people living in tapir habitat to raise tame or semi-tame tapirs. What is unusual is for that opportunity to be turned into a fledgling nature sanctuary. Usually the tapir ends up as somebody’s dinner. In this case, Anders worked with local people to protect the tapir, and then found land to create a sanctuary for the tapir and other animals. These may be pets taken locally from the wild that are not able to return, or sometimes animals that wander in and don’t want to leave. The tapir, a female, is a lowland tapir from Amazonian Ecuador. She leaves the premises and returns - and lately has been followed by males eager to breed. Hopefully the area will become a sanctuary for her offspring as well. The presence of a tagged, semi-tame tapir has saved other tapirs from hunters, as they will not risk killing this animal. If they’re not sure whether the animal they are hunting is the tame one, they avoid killing it. In this way a number of tapirs in the area have escaped being eaten.

This month Club Tapir raised $187 for Anders and his project. One hundred and fifty dollars is about the minimum needed per month. That helps to feed the tapir and pay a keeper to guard the area. Using his own money, Anders has made some improvements such as a small hut for storage of food and for the keeper to sleep in.

Club Tapir Donor List for January, 2001

Masayuki Adachi, Japan
Kevin & Janet Anderson, USA
Gilia Angell, USA
Michelle & Scott Babcock, USA
Rick Barongi, USA
Jo Ann & Cemil Bayrakci, USA
Rana Bayrakci, USA
Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman, USA
Alex Cárdenas, Panamá
Oliver Cartwright, England
Steve Cremer, USA
Sean Culpan, Scotland
Sharon Danielsen, USA
John Deal, USA
Nicola DeBolt, USA
Karin Drewnitzki, USA/Germany
Ellen Dwight & Ken Aron, USA
Rachel T. Emmer, USA
Kevin Flesher, USA
Heidi Frohring, USA
Della M. Garell, USA
Alice Gilley, USA
Greater Cleveland Chapter, AAZK, USA
Lisa Green, USA
Chrissi Hadley, USA
Shannon Hiemstra, USA
Akira Ito, Japan
Ann Iverson-Dawson, USA
Peter Jackson, USA
Audrey Jakab, USA
Sally & Harvey James, England
Gernot Janda, Austria
Donald Janssen, USA
Kathy Knight, England
Dawn Kravagna, USA
Carol Langford, USA
Dean Leverett, England
Rob Lyman & Christine Kim, USA
Chuck Mancuso, USA
Andy Markley, USA
Cindy Marzolf, USA
Patricia Medici, Brazil
Dennis Milam, USA
James Nelson, USA
Judith Norton, USA
James Powell, USA
Justine Powell, Australia
Rose M. Ready & Hattiesburg Zoo, USA
Carol Reid, Canada
Mark A. Reid, Canada
Fred & Kathy Rodriguez, USA
Ayéssa Rourke, USA
Hannah & Philip Schein, USA
Andrew Schultz, USA
Peggy Shaver, USA
Wendy Skriver, USA
Timothy Somers, USA
Mike Souza, USA
Tamsin Spargo, England
Michele Stancer, USA
Michele Stansbury, USA
Lauren Svitil, USA
Alex & Susan Sze, USA
Noel Thornton, 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


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


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