Comparative sensitivity to environmental variation and human disturbance of Asian tapirs (Tapirus indicus) and other wild ungulates in Thailand

Abstract

Southeast Asia's tropical forests suffer the highest rates of deforestation and disturbance of any on Earth, with poorly understood impacts on native fauna. Asian tapirs (Tapirus indicus) are among the least studied of the large mammals in these forests. Using records from 9 camera trap surveys in 7 of the largest (>1000 km(2) ) protected area complexes, we assessed the influence of environmental variation and human-induced disturbance on tapir occurrence. Tapirs were detected at 13% of locations sampled, significantly associated with evergreen forest (P < 0.001). A multiple logistic regression model predicted tapir presence 87% of the time. According to this model, tapir occurrence was positively influenced by annual rainfall and proximity to the forest edge. However, tapirs may not avoid edges but instead prefer wetter evergreen forest, a habitat type that tended to occur further from the forest edge at higher elevations in our particular study sites (P < 0.001). By comparison, 4 other wild ungulate species that share habitats with tapirs showed a range of differing responses. Tapirs are expected to be less sensitive to disturbance because they are not targets for hunting and trade, and are almost entirely active at night, so avoid peak traffic periods in parks. Tapir populations in Thailand may be more stable than in other parts of their global range because rates of forest loss have decreased >40% over the past 20 years. We recommend surveys to fill gaps in the understanding of the status in lesser-known protected areas, research to better understand the fine-scale environmental influences on behavior and habitats of tapirs, and other forest ungulates, and continued legal status for tapirs in the highest category of protection.

Use of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences to determine the origin of captive Asian tapirs Tapirus indicus: implications for conservation

“…Our phylogenetic results based on cytochrome b revealed identical results as reported in studies of cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (Ashley et al 1996) and 12S rRNA (Norman & Ashley 2000). Recently, populations of wild Asian tapirs in Thailand have stabilized (Lynam et al 2012) due to a decrease in the rate of deforestation following a ban on commercial logging in 1989, with protected areas now covering roughly 18% of land area across the country. In general, maintaining large intact areas of undisturbed rainforest is important for Asian tapir persistence (Novarino et al 2005, Traeholt & Mohamed 2009, Mohamed & Traeholt 2011).…”

“…Regionally, the species is sensitive to changes in forest cover, and the distribution of forest cover has been severely fragmented in parts of the tapir's range, leading to small populations (10 to 15 individuals) remaining in disjunct habitat (Lynam et al 2008). In Thailand, tapir populations may be more stable, as rates of forest loss have decreased significantly in recent years (Lynam et al 2012). Genetic monitoring has long been recognized as an important tool to protect endangered species from extinction (O'Brien 1994), and integrating genetic data with ecological data has been increasingly applied to conservation to assess the status of threatened and endangered species.…”

Genetic diversity of the captive Asian tapir population in Thailand, based on mitochondrial control region sequence data and the comparison of its nucleotide structure with Brazilian tapir

“…Such variation is typical in other species (Xu et al 1996;Xu & Arnason 1997). It remains to be determined if the lack of variation we observe is a result of low genetic diversity currently represented in captivity, or a result of low genetic diversity in the species due to low population sizes (human-induced or otherwise), or a genuine feature of the mtDNA makeup of this species (Lynam et al 2012). Analyzing samples from wildcaught individuals across the range will help us determine which hypothesis is most likely.…”

“…The population is now categorized as Endangered on the 2008 IUCN red list of threatened species (Lynam et al 2008) resulting from the main threat, i.e. habitat loss (Medici et al 2003), although it is now showing signs of recovery following wide-scale protection of their preferred habitat (Lynam et al 2012).…”

On tapir ecology, evolution and conservation: what we know and future perspectives–part I

“…There are 3 on Baird's tapir: 2 that present very different conclusions about the effects of hunting on tapir populations (Dunn et al 2012;McCann et al 2012) and another estimating density of Baird's tapir in Costa Rica (González-Maya et al 2012). Finally, 3 on Asian tapirs: 2 that are creative about their data collection to obtain tapir density estimates ) and distribution (Clements et al 2012) in Peninsular Malaysia, and another that collates a large dataset to examine the environmental variables that predict tapir occurrence in Thailand (Lynam et al 2012).…”