Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-8zxtt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-14T16:09:04.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Preliminary notes on the conservation status of Baird's tapir Tapirus bairdii in north-eastern Honduras

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

Kevin Flesher
Kevin Flesher
Affiliation:
Biotech Center/Foran Hall, Room 135, 59 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. E-mail: kevinflesher@yahoo.com
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Between April and August 1994, three steps were taken to assess the status of Baird's tapir Tapirus bairdii in north-eastern Honduras: (i) forest cover was mapped to estimate the amount of habitat available; (ii) interviews with local people were conducted to determine where the species occurs; and (iii) searches were made for tapir signs in several mountain ranges to corroborate interview information. Local reports and searches indicated that the species occurred in forests throughout the area. Using density estimates of 0.05–0.24 tapirs per sq km, there may be 520–2760 tapirs in the 10,400–11,500 sq km of contiguous rain forest that remains in north-eastern Honduras—a population large enough to have a good chance of long-term persistence. The main threat to the population is human colonization, which is destroying the forest along the rivers and major streams. This is fragmenting the tapii population into isolated units, which will be increasingly subject to the stochastic events that drive small populations to extinction. Hunting, which along with habitat destruction, is a major contributor to the rapid decline of tapir populations in areas of human colonization, does not appear to pose an immediate threat in the study area. However, population trend data are lacking and the impact of hunting on tapirs remains unassessed.

Keywords

Baird's tapircolonization frontconservationhabitat fragmentationHondurasTapirus bairdiiviable populations
Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , October 1999 , pp. 294 - 300
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1999

References

Chalukian, S.C. & Bentley, J.W. (1995) Cultural landscapes in Honduras: the Mosquitia. In Cultural Landscapes of Universal Value: Components of a Global Strategy (eds von Droste, B., Plachter, H. and Rossler, M.), pp. 202–209. Gustav Fisher Verlag and UNESCO, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Eisenberg, J.F. (1989) Mammals of the Neotropics: The Northern Neotropics, vol. 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.Google Scholar
Emmons, L.H. & Freer, F. (1997) Neotropical Rainforest Mammals—A Field Guide. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Flesher, K.M. & Ley, E. (1996) A frontier model for landscape ecology: the tapir in Honduras. Environmental and Ecological Statistics, 3, 119–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fragoso, J.M. (1991) The effect of hunting on tapirs in Belize. In Neotropical Wildlife Use and Conservation (eds Robinson, J. G. and Redford, K. H.), pp. 154–162. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
IUCN (1996) 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Matola, S., Cuaron, A.D. & Rubio-Torgler, H. (1997) Status and action plan for Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii). In Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan—Tapirs (eds Brooks, D. M., Bodmer, R. E. and Matola, S.), pp. 29–45. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Myers, N. (1986) Tropical deforestation and a mega-extinction spasm. In Conservation Biology: Science of Scarcity and Diversity (ed. Soule, M. E.), pp. 394–409. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.Google Scholar
Robinson, J.G. & Redford, K. H. (1991) Subsistence and commercial uses of wildlife in Latin America. In Neotropical Wildlife Use and Conservation (eds Robinson, J. G. and Redford, K. H.), pp. 6–23. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Terwilliger, V.J. (1978) Natural history of Baird's tapir on Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal Zone. Biotropica, 10, 211–220.Google Scholar
Williams, K.D. (1994) The Central American tapir (Tapirus bairdii Gill) in northwestern Costa Rica. PhD thesis, Michigan State University.Google Scholar