animals
Researchers warn: Tapirs in South America are threatened with extinction
Researchers warn that tapirs might become extinct in South America. (Archive image) Photo: Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
They can weigh up to 250 kilograms and feed on plants: tapirs are the largest land mammals in South America. Now they are threatened with extinction. The problem: finding a partner.
Flatland tapirs once roamed much of South America’s Atlantic forest, but today the region’s largest land mammal is on the verge of extinction.
According to a study published in the journal Neotropical Biology and Conservation, tapirs can only be found in 1.78 percent of their original habitat in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. While the herbivores, which weigh up to 250 kilograms, were previously threatened primarily by hunting and deforestation, the greatest danger now comes from low reproduction.
The authors of the study estimate the number of tapirs in 48 areas to be between 2,665 and 15,992. However, the habitats are often so isolated that the animals cannot find a partner to mate with. According to the research, only 3 to 14 populations are demographically and genetically viable over the next 100 years.
Tapirs are slow breeders: Females are pregnant for 13 months and only give birth to one young at a time. There are often up to three years between two births. “Our simulations clearly show that for small populations, the loss of just one animal per year can lead to the rapid extinction of an entire local population,” explained study co-author Patrícia Medici.