Studying Tapirs to Improve Health and Well-Being

SCIENTIFIC TITLE: Establishing a Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii) population health surveillance program through a collaborative system in Costa Rica

START DATE: Spring 2025

PROJECTED DURATION: 2 years

SUMMARY: Researchers will study tapirs in Costa Rica to learn more about the interactions between people and tapirs and establish a network to respond when tapirs that are injured or killed. Additionally, through this network, the team will investigate infectious diseases and possible consequences to tapir’s health.

THE PROBLEM: Tapirs are the largest land mammals in Latin America. Though they may look like pigs or anteaters, they are actually related to horses. Tapirs are usually shy and live in rainforests. But in Northwest Costa Rica, near two national parks in the Tenorio-Miravalles Biological Corridor (TMBC), tapirs and people often cross paths. Tapirs leave protected areas to eat farmers' crops, sometimes crossing roads where they are hit by cars or hunted, or are persecuted by dogs. The team’s conservation work has helped reduce these conflicts. They've worked with local people to track tapirs and use electric fences to keep them away from crops. However, tapirs also roam through pastures, coming into contact with horses and cattle. This raises concerns about tapirs being exposed to diseases from livestock.

THE PROJECT: The team has been studying how tapirs use the forest and where they travel by tracking their movements with collars and capturing their images on field cameras. They've also been engaging the local community in environmental education and other activities to inspire them to protect tapirs. With this project they will build on this work. Objectives include: 1) check the health of horses and tapirs in the TMBC. After this, they’ll expand the study to five other regions in Costa Rica where tapirs interact with people and livestock. 2) Compare the health of tapir populations in these regions. By involving park rangers, biologists, veterinarians, farmers, and horse owners, they will create a team that can respond effectively when tapirs are injured or die.

POTENTIAL IMPACT: These results will improve the health and well-being of these amazing creatures and could provide a template for similar initiatives in other areas.