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Ecology of Lowland Tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in the Amazonian Lowlands of Madre de Dios, Peru
Understanding the ecology of a species is important for
its conservation and management. The goal of this project is to
investigate different aspects of tapirs ecology in the lowland
rainforests of Peru.
Habitat use and movement patterns: Using
GPS collars we look at the movement patterns of tapirs. We want to
find out how large their home ranges are, if there are seasonal
variations in home range size and location that could be related to
food availability, and which vegetation types tapirs prefere. We are interested in the daily distance the animals move and the frequency
with which they revisit sites.
Mineral Licks: Collpas
(mineral licks) are an important mineral source for animals and are frequently visited by tapirs. Using camera traps we monitor several
mineral licks to obtain more information on the exact number of tapirs
visiting, the frequency individual animals visited the licks and their
behavior at the lick. The GPS collars give us detailed information on how far
tapirs traveled to visit licks and if individuals used different ones.
Diet: Tapirs have a significant impact
on the vegetation patterns of tropical lowland rainforests by seed
dispersion and predation as well as by trampling and feeding on plants.
Therefore, knowledge of tapirs’ use of space over the landscape as well
as their diet preferences was necessary to increase the understanding
of the ecological role they play. We studied the importance of tapirs
as seed dispersers by examining 135 dung samples. Within each of these
samples we found seeds from 122 different seed species. The most
frequently encountered species was Mauritia flexuosa. The seeds ranged in size from less than 1 mm to as large as 25 mm.
Population monitoring: The lowland
tapir is an important game species that is regularly hunted, but there is little information on their density and population dynamics needed to develop management plans. We are evaluating a range of methods (camera traps, line transects and track counts) to find the one that is most suited for monitoring tapir populations in tropical lowland forests. By using the different methods in the same area we are able to compare them to another as well as to the data obtained by the GPS collars.