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Tapir Conservation the Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group ISSN 1813-2286 Volume 18/1 n No. 25 June 2009 Tapir Conservation The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group www.tapirs.org n The Tapir Research Spotlight n Abundance of Baird‘s Tapir in Costa Rica n Ecology of Lowland Tapir in the Brazilian Pantanal n Population of Malay Tapir in Krau Wildlife Reserve, Malaysia n Conservation of Mountan Tapir in North-West Peru n Ticks in New World Tapirs Printing and distribution of the Tapir Conservation Newsletter is supported by the Houston Zoo Inc., 1513 N. Mac Gregor, Houston, Texas 77030, United States, http://www.houstonzoo.org 2 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE IUCN/SSC TAPIR SPECIALIST GROUP CONTENTS TAPIR CONSERVATION Volume 18/1 n No. 25 n June 2009 Abbreviation Tapir Cons. From the Chair 3 ISSN 1813-2286 Letter from the Chair 3 Website www.tapirs.org Spotlight 4 Contributions Carl Traeholt (Denmark/Malaysia) Editor E-mail: [email protected] The Tapir Research Spotlight 4 Science 6 Layout & Stefan Seitz (Germany) Distribution E-mail: [email protected] Editors Abstracts of Dissertations and Theses 6 Kelly J. Russo (United States) E-mail: [email protected] Contributions 7 Editorial Board Patrícia Medici Lowland Tapirs in the Nhecolândia Region of the Brazilian E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Pantanal: Population Density, Habitat Use and Threats Arnaud Leonard Jean Desbiez 7 Mathias Tobler (Switzerland/Peru) E-mail: [email protected] Population Estimates of Malay Tapir, Tapirus indicus, Anders Gonçalves da Silva (Brazil/Canada) by Camera Trapping in Krau Wildlife Reserve, Malaysia E-mail: [email protected] Carl Traeholt and Mohd. Sanusi bin Mohamed 12 Diego J. Lizcano (Colombia) E-mail: [email protected] Ticks of New World Tapirs Marcelo B. Labruna and Alberto A. Guglielmone 21 Matthew Colbert (United States) E-mail: [email protected] Elevational Distribution and Abundance of Baird’s Tapir Budhan Pukazhenthi (United States) (Tapirus bairdii) at different Protection Areas in E-mail: [email protected] Talamanca Region of Costa Rica José F. González-Maya, Jan Schipper, Karla Rojas-Jiménez 29 Benoit de Thoisy (French Guiana) E-mail: [email protected] Cerro Negro: An important Mountain Tapir Conservation Area in the Piuran Andes, Piura and Cajamarca States, Production This issue is kindly sponsored by Houston Zoo Inc., NW Peru & Distribution Kelly Russo, 1513 North Mac Gregor, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. Craig C. Downer 36 Tapir Specialist Group Members 38 Instructions for Authors 45 The views expressed in Tapir Conservation are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group Tapir Specialist Group Structure 47 or Houston Zoological Gardens. This publication may be photocopied for private use only and the copyright remains that of the Tapir Specialist Group. Copyright for all photographs herein remains with the individual photographers. Tapir Conservation n The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group n Vol. 18/1 n No. 25 n June 2009 Tapir Conservation n The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group n Vol. 18/1 n No. 25 n June 2009 FROM THE CHAIR 3 FROM THE CHAIR Letter from the Chair Patrícia Medici t is always nice to be able to start my Letter from the IChair by saying that the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG) continues to make progress in many dif- ferent fronts! We continue to work tirelessly on the development of National Action Plans for Tapir Conservation in several different tapir range countries in South and Central America, as well as Southeast Asia. Our TSG Country Coordinators are making considerable advancements on the design of their National Plans. Our Ecuadorian Regional Action Planning Committee has just held an action planning workshop last May to finalize their National Action Plan for Tapir Conservation in Ecuador. Argentina is taking the final steps on the development of their National Plan. Patrícia Medici, French Guiana, Guatemala, Honduras and Indonesia Chair of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group are planning for a series of activities related to tapir action planning. Very soon we will have a series of new plans ready to be implemented for the benefit of tapir editors more effectively. The Houston Zoo Inc. in the conservation! United States continues to sponsor the printing and The new Red List Assessments for the four spe- distribution of two issues of Tapir Conservation per cies of tapirs, compiled by our Red List Authority year and we are extremely grateful for their support. Alan Shoemaker and members of the TSG Red List Furthermore, I would like to thank the Copenhagen Committee were released during the IUCN Conference Zoo in Denmark for their continued financial support held in Barcelona in October 2008 is available online for the TSG operation costs. at www.iucnredlist.org. Our TSG Red List Committee A second webmaster – Kara Masharani from the will continue to work with the Red List Unit of the IUCN Houston Zoo Inc. – has come on board to help us Species Programme to keep our tapir assessments up improve our TSG website (www.tapirs.org) and keep to date. In order to be more efficient in doing that, we it up to date. Gilia Angell, Kelly Russo and Kara have will try to find way to support members of the TSG to been working on completely re-designing and updating participate in regular Red List training courses organi- the website. In a few weeks we will have an entirely zed by the IUCN Red List Unit around the world. new navigation format, new sections for the general The team of editors of Tapir Conservation, public, and pages focusing on tapir field projects. including Carl Traeholt, Anders Gonçalves da Silva, Therefore, we will soon start chasing tapir conserva- Kelly Russo and Stefan Seitz, has been working hard tionists around the world for information about their to improve our newsletter. We have put together a new tapir conservation efforts so that we can create pages Editorial Board and developed brand new, updated about in-situ and ex-situ tapir conservation projects. guidelines for contributions, which are included in We will need help! this issue and will soon be available online on the The TSG Education and Marketing Committee TSG website. Additionally, our editors are working is also working on building profiles for the TSG on to develop and implement an online system to submit several vehicles of social media and networking such contributions to the newsletter, which will certainly as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, among others. make our lives much easier and provide a much more Our Virtual Library manager Mathias Tobler conti- professional way to carry out our submission & review nues to improve and maintain our library. We current- process. Authors will be able to check the status ly have 550 bibliographical references available online of their contributions and communicate with our in PDF format for all TSG members. The references Tapir Conservation n The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group n Vol. 18/1 n No. 25 n June 2009 Tapir Conservation n The Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group n Vol. 18/1 n No. 25 n June 2009 4 FROM THE CHAIR | SPOTLIGHT 5 include scientific papers, BS, MSc and PhD dissertati- Thank you so much for your continued support ons, magazine articles among others. Our TSG mem- to the Tapir Specialist Group and to tapir conserva- bers have been helping us keep our library as up to tion in general! Hope to see all of you in Malaysia in date as possible. 2011! Yes, it is final! The Fifth International Tapir We have recently established a Steering Committee Symposium will be held in Kuala Lumpur in April for the TSG, which is formed by a group of 14 mem- 2011. We will start the organization of the meeting bers representing several different professional back- in early 2010. Therefore we recommend you all start grounds, institutional affiliations, and range countries. saving up for the long trip to Southeast Asia! The current structure of the TSG which includes a variety of committees, taskforces and working groups, All the best from Brazil, works very efficiently and in a very integrated way. However, the group felt the need to have a Steering Committee dedicated to discussing the group’s major Patrícia Medici issues and, most importantly, helping us implement M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology, Conservation and Management our Strategic Plans and Action Plans. Ph.D. Candidate, Durrell Institute of Conservation and On a final note, I would like to let you all know that I Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, United Kingdom have been invited by the new chair of the IUCN Species Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative, IPÊ - Instituto de Survival Commission (SSC) - Dr. Simon Stuart - to be Pesquisas Ecológicas, Brazil part of the Steering Committee of the SSC. I accepted Chair, IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG) the invitation and participated in the first meeting of Facilitator, IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist this new established SSC Steering Committee held Group (CBSG) - Brasil Network Rua Taiobá, 672, Bairro Cidade Jardim, CEP: 79040-640, at the IUCN Headquarters in Gland, Switzerland, last Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, BRAZIL June. It is incredibly challenging to be a member of Phone & FAX: +55-67-3341-8732 / this group of conservationists and I feel I have so much Cell Phone: +55-67-9965-6960 to learn, but being able to learn about and contribute to E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; conservation on a global level is extremely rewarding. [email protected] What do Tapirs, Rhinos, Horses and SPOTLIGHT Humans have in Common? Trifonov et al.
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