Last September, in the midst of several wildfires across the country, we heard the sad news of the rescue of a tapir in Andradina, in the interior of São Paulo. According to an article published on the G1 news website, the animal was unable to escape the fire and was found disoriented and with injuries that affected 100% of its body. This individual was sent to the Mata Ciliar NGO team, located in Jundiaí (SP), but unfortunately the animal didn't survive. In addition to this case, at the Mata Ciliar NGO, just five months earlier in Piacatu (in the interior of São Paulo), a pair of tapirs and a newborn calf were run over. Unfortunately, the male and the calf were also unable to resist their injuries. Both pieces of news are recurring examples of the pressure these animals are currently under, but who are they anyway? Considered the largest land mammal in South America, reaching up to two meters in length and weighing up to 300 kilos, tapirs are ungulates of the order Perissodactyla, which also includes horses and rhinoceroses. The Tapiridae family comprises four species: the South American tapir (T. terrestris), the Central American tapir (T. bairdii), the mountain tapir (T. pinchaque) and the Asian tapir (T. indicus), distributed throughout the world in Central America, South America and Southeast Asia (Mangini, 2014).
Figure 1: Worldwide distribution of tapirs
One of the most striking features of tapirs is their small proboscis, which is highly mobile and tactile, and acts as an auxiliary limb for catching food (Mangini, 2014), including leaves, shoots, flowers and seeds of various plant species (Tobler et al. 2010). Their conservation status in Brazil depends on the location in question. A study published in 2012 by ICMbio and based on data from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from 2010, revealed the conservation status of tapirs in Brazil depending on the biome, revealing that only in the Amazon was the species considered to be Least Concern (LC), in the Pantanal the status given was Near Threatened (NT), in the Caatinga it was considered Regionally Extinct (RE), and in the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado it is Endangered (EN) (Medici, 2010).
Considered to be forest gardeners, tapirs play an important ecological role, helping to disperse the seeds of different plant species throughout the forest and thus participating in the maintenance of the forests they use as habitat. In addition, as one of the main prey of cougar (Puma concolor) and jaguar (Panthera onca), this animal plays a fundamental role in balancing the trophic chain in which it is present.
Despite this ecological importance, these species suffer from various external pressures that contribute to their population decline, which has a direct impact on the ecological balance. Among the main threats, according to the IUCN, we can mention: hunting, deforestation and/or habitat alteration, resource extraction, livestock, fires, monoculture, trampling, lack of patrols in protected areas, tourism, climate change, hydroelectric plants and mining. Thus, possible mitigating actions can be taken to contribute to the conservation of the species, such as:
Creation of new protected areas;
Traffic awareness campaigns;
Greater monitoring of areas susceptible to fires;
Government incentives for sustainable agricultural practices;
Greater support for research projects and programs.
An example of a project with this focus is the National Initiative for the Conservation of the Brazilian Tapir (INCAB), a project run by the Ecological Research Institute (IPÊ) and led by Brazilian environmentalist Dr. Patrícia Medici. This initiative involves research, monitoring and conservation actions, as well as environmental awareness and education. Operating since 1996, the program has expanded and today has the largest database on the species in the world, which is made available to help implement measures that can support the protection of the species in all Brazilian biomes where it occurs. Author: Luiza Torquato- Regional Representative
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