THE Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) is the largest of the world’s four tapir species. The other three species – lowland, mountain and Baird’s – are found in Central and South America. Once distributed over South-East Asia, the Malayan tapir is now confined to Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra in Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar, and continues to decline in numbers in all four countries.
“Only the first two countries have significant populations and habitat remaining. The decline in population is the result of continued habitat loss from illegal logging and the lack of protection of most areas still containing significant populations,” says Dr Alan Shoemaker at a tapir symposium in Kuala Lumpur last month.
A member of the Tapir Specialist Group in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Shoemaker says populations in Myanmar are especially at risk as they are restricted to rainforests in the Tenasserim Range where only 5% of the forest is protected. In Sumatra, he says, over 50% of the remaining habitat is outside tapir domain and hunting is uncontrolled. In Thailand, 40% of the remaining forest is unprotected.
“Only the population in Malaysia appear, although perhaps falsely, to be secure and even that population only appears to be around 1,500 to 2,000. Because individual tapirs are now known to travel greater distances than previously thought, even this “safe” population is probably much lower.”
For all these reasons, the conservation status of the species was elevated from “vulnerable” to “endangered” in the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species in 2008.
According to the IUCN, Malayan tapir numbers have halved in the past three generations (36 years), driven primarily by large-scale conversion of lowland tapir habitat to oil palm plantations and other human-dominated land-use. It says remaining populations are isolated in existing protected areas and forest fragments, which are discontinuous and offer little opportunity for genetic exchange for these forest-dependent species.
Hunting is also cause for concern in the future as already reduced and isolated sub-populations would be at great risk for extirpation. Scientists says local extinction or population declines of tapirs can disrupt some key ecological processes such as seed dispersal and nutrient recycling, and eventually compromise the integrity and biodiversity of the forest ecosystem.
Hopeful news
For the Malaysian tapir population, biologist Dr Carl Traeholt remains optimistic as he considers the situation here to be better than in other range countries, where the species is under great pressure.
“Malaysia has taken efforts to protect the tapir. It has over 40% forest cover and if we can keep it as it is now, we can safeguard the species. The crucial thing is that there is no more significant habitat loss. As long as we control habitat destruction, we are going in the right direction.”
Also critical to tapir conservation is implementation of the national Tiger Action Plan, a document finalised in early 2009 which spells out the actions needed in order to boost tiger numbers.
Conservation strategies in the plan includes securing and expanding tiger refuges, improving forestry management, linking fragmented forests with vegetated corridors, stricter enforcement against poachers and wise land-use to overcome man-tiger clashes.
“If we can implement the tiger protection plan successfully, there will be a spill-over effect ... we can also conserve the tapir,” says Traeholt, who for the past decade, has conducted camera trapping, radio telemetry and captive-breeding research on the species here.
He says there will be a regional meeting next year to draft guidelines on ex-situ conservation of the Malayan tapir, particularly on regional standards on husbandry and care. Captive animals, being housed in different environmental condition from the wild, have been known to develop clinical pathologies related to stress, diet or the enclosure environment. Symptoms often become complex to diagnose. There have been cases of tapirs in European zoos contracting tuberculosis and at one zoo in Argentina, corneal ulcer.
In Myanmar, little is known about the status and distribution of tapirs. Only one protected area in southern Myanmar, the 1,700sqkm Taninthayi Nature Reserve, conserves tropical rainforests and affords protection for tapirs, tigers, Asian elephants and other biodiversity, according to Nay Myo Shwe of the Myanmar Forest Department.
“Hunting, and habitat loss and degradation are major threats to tapirs in and around Taninthayi,” he says at the symposium. Between March and June, surveys were conducted using camera-traps, tracks and signs. Nay says that from interviews with 119 villagers and military staff, it was found that a third had eaten tapir meat in the last 14 years and hunters – some were after elephants – had killed at least 26 tapirs in the past 20 years. The survey also shows that tapirs were accidentally killed in pit fall traps and during commercial logging prior to the reserve being gazetted (from 1989 to 1996).
Nay says the priority for now is to curb poaching and accidental killings of tapirs. In response to the threat, a ranger training programme was established to raise capacity for patrolling and law enforcement.
The Star
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