South American Tapir
They go by a few other names like the Brazilian Tapir, the Amazonian tapir, the Lowland tapir and the Maned tapir. Although the tapir looks like a cross between a pig and an elephant its closest relatives are horses, zebras and rhinos. They are the largest surviving native terrestrial mammal in the Amazon. They are dark brown, paler in the face, and has a low, erect crest running from the crown down the back of the neck. The round, dark ears have distinctive white edges. They are excellent swimmers and divers.
Habitat
They inhabit lowland South American moist swamp forests, dry and moist shrublands and grasslands and a wide variety of wetlands. This species has been observed to be associated with both water and salt-licks, but generally tapirs are a forest dependent species. There is some evidence from the Atlantic Forest that suggests tapirs can tolerate radical large scale changes in habitat, as they have been found to persist in landscapes of commercially produced grains with only small degraded forest fragments . Habitat condition appears to be less important in limiting population persistence than hunting and deaths caused by vehicle collisions. The fruits of this palm are a crucial food resource for tapirs especially during the dry season. In fact, tapirs are the prime seed dispersers for this palm, indicating the close evolutionary relationship between both species. Salt licks are smaller aquatic systems and may occur in clumped spatial distribution. Tapirs, among other mammals, frequently visit salt licks to obtain essential minerals. Hunters, knowing the tapir’s fondness for salt, wait at those locations because their success is dramatically increased.
Diet
They are an herbivore. Using its mobile nose, it feeds on leaves, buds, shoots, and small branches it tears from trees, fruit, grasses, and aquatic plants. This is known because the diet is studied through observation of browsing, analysis of feces, and studying stomach contents.
Breeding
They tend to mate in either April, May, or June, reaching sexual maturity in the third year of life. Females go through a gestation period of 13 months (390–395 days) and will typically have one offspring every two years. A newborn South American tapir weighs about 15 pounds and will be weaned in about six months. Newborn tapirs have a dark brown coat, with small white spots and stripes along the body. The South American tapir can attain a body length of 1.8-2.5m with a 5-10cm short stubby tail and an average weight around 225kg.
Population
Populations are decreasing across its range, though numerous strongholds exist. However, there is insufficient information available to extrapolate population sizes across these regions. In recent years camera-traps have been effective for estimating probability of occupancy, relative abundance, and even density estimates for many species within the tapir's range. In fact great variation in density likely also reflects the results of both direct and indirect threats in the form of hunting pressure, protection and seasonal variation. Additionally, it can also reflect the tapir’s ability to adapt to different habitat types and availability of resources (food and water).
Threats
The main threats to the species include loss of habitat through deforestation, hunting for meat, road-kill, and competition with domestic livestock. The impacts of hunting on populations are amplified by the very low ability of tapir to quickly re-populate impacted areas. Though several strongholds occur - populations have been severely reduced and fragmented across the entire Cerrado (Brazil), Chaco (Argentina/ Paraguay), Atlantic forest (Brazil/ Argentina/ Paraguay) and llanos (Venezuela/Colombia) biomes. In Argentina and southern Brazil the species has been extirpated from the tropical and temperate grassland and shrubland - and are rapidly declining in the dry Chaco. Additionally the species has been extirpated from the entire Caatinga biome of north-eastern Brazil. In the northeast, tapirs are present only inside protected areas where illegal hunting is minimal. Outside protected areas, they are still hunted, chased by dogs, and negatively impacted by competition with cattle and illegal timber activities. The species is in rapid decline along the eastern Amazon and its Southern Tributaries where extensive hunting and deforestation have reduced almost all large mammal populations. In addition, populations are declining rapidly along the agricultural front spreading into western Brazil and along the Andean foothills of Ecuador and Colombia. In Argentina, they disappeared from around 50% of its original distribution, as a consequence of deforestation, hunting and livestock activity. The species is absent in many areas of transition between the montane forests, in important sectors of the Chaco and the Atlantic forest and completely in the Espinal. However, there are still populations in good condition in some forested areas, mainly those with limited accessibility and human activities, such as mountain forests or protected areas with strict controls. There is currently an important effort to reintroduce the species in the province of Corrientes. Roadkill is becoming a major threat to Tapir in the Cerrado (Brazil), the Pantanal (Brazil), and the Atlantic Forest (Argentina/Brazil). In Bolivia, tapirs are susceptible to hunting, and habitat degradation. While they may well be more common than expected in protected areas, as was found out in Costa Rica, they do not fare well in the presence of hunting. In French Guiana, tapirs are regularly hunted and sold commercially for meat in markets and restaurants. Little information is available for the population in Guyana, however, tapirs are not protected there at present and are hunted by subsistence hunters as well as by a developing bush-meat industry as roads are cut into the forest for logging. In Paraguay a recent threatened species workshop assessed them as vulnerable mainly due to habitat loss in the last 40 years, and the resulting decline in the distribution and population of the species. More than 90% of the Atlantic Forest has been lost, and the Chaco could experience the same declines over the next 30 years. Hunting and habitat loss were identified as main threats to the species.