South American tapir
The South American tapir, also commonly called the Brazilian tapir, the Amazonian tapir, the maned tapir, the lowland tapir, anta, and la sachavaca, is one of the four recognized species in the tapir family. It is the largest surviving native terrestrial mammal in the Amazon.
Most classifications also include Tapirus kabomani as also belonging to the species Tapirus terrestris, despite its questionable existence and the overall lack of information on its habits and distribution. The specific epithet derives from arabo kabomani, the word for tapir in the local Paumarí language. The formal description of this tapir did not suggest a common name for the species. The Karitiana people call it the little black tapir. It is, purportedly, the smallest tapir species, even smaller than the mountain tapir, which had been considered the smallest. T. kabomani is allegedly also found in the Amazon rainforest, where it appears to be sympatric with the well-known South American tapir. When it was described in December of 2013, T. kabomani was the first odd-toed ungulate discovered in over 100 years. However, T. kabomani has not been officially recognized by the Tapir Specialist Group as a distinct species; recent genetic evidence further suggests it is likely a subspecies of T. terrestris. In 2024, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has officially ruled that the binomen Tapirus pygmaeus has priority over Tapirus kabomani given that they are synonyms after a 2014 petition.
Appearance
T. terrestris is dark brown, paler in the face, and has a low, erect crest running from the crown down the back of the neck. The round, dark ears have distinctive white edges. Newborn tapirs have a dark brown coat, with small white spots and stripes along the body. The South American tapir can attain a body length of with a short stubby tail and an average weight around. Adult weight has been reported ranging from. It stands somewhere between at the shoulder.File:Brazilian Tapir Skull.jpg|thumb|South American tapir skull, on display at the Museum of Osteology, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Features claimed for ''Tapirus kabomani''
With an estimated mass of only, T. kabomani is the smallest living tapir. For comparison, the mountain tapir has a mass between. Tapirus kabomani is roughly long and in shoulder height.It has a distinct phenotype from other members of the species. It can be differentiated by its coloration: it is a range of darker grey to brown than other T. terrestris strains. This species also features relatively short legs for a tapir caused by a femur length that is shorter than dentary length. The crest is smaller and less prominent. T. kabomani also seems to exhibit some level of sexual dimorphism as females tend to be larger than males and possess a characteristic patch of light hair on their throats. The patch extends from the chin up to the ear and down to the base of the neck.
Head and skull attributes are also important in identification of this species. This tapir possesses a single, narrow, low and gently inclined sagittal crest that rises posteriorly from the toothrow. T. kabomani skulls also lack both a nasal septum and dorsal maxillary flanges. The skull possesses a meatal diverticulum fossa that is shallower and less dorsally extended than those of the other four extant species of tapir.
Geographic range
The South American tapir can be found near water in the Amazon rainforest and River Basin in South America, east of the Andes. Its geographic range stretches from Venezuela, Colombia, and the Guianas in the north to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay in the south, to Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador in the west. On rare occasions, waifs have crossed the narrow sea channel from Venezuela to the southern coast of the island of Trinidad.Tapirus kabomani is restricted to South America. It is found in habitats consisting of a mosaic of forest and savannah. It has been collected in southern Amazonas, Rondônia, and Mato Grosso states in Brazil. The species is also believed to be present in Amazonas department in Colombia, and it may be present in Amapá, Brazil, in north Bolivia and in southern French Guiana.
In 2024, the South American tapir was observed in the state of Rio de Janeiro for the first time since 1914. According to Marcelo Cupello, a scientist from Rio de Jaineiro's State Environmental Institution, the return of the species indicates that the state's forests are once again capable of sustaining populations of large mammals.
Behavior
T. terrestris is an excellent swimmer and diver, but also moves quickly on land, even over rugged, mountainous terrain. It has a life span of approximately 25 to 30 years. In the wild, its main predators are crocodilians and large cats, such as the jaguar and cougar, which often attack tapirs at night when tapirs leave the water and sleep on the riverbank. The South American tapir is also attacked by the green anaconda.Although they may flee into the bush or into water when threatened, lowland tapirs are capable of defending themselves with their very powerful bite; in 2005, a 55 year old farmer stabbed a 400 lb female lowland tapir that was feeding in his cornfield, which responded by repeatedly biting the man. Both died from their wounds.
There is a need for more research to better explore social interactions.
Diet
The South American tapir is an herbivore. Using its mobile nose, it feeds on leaves, buds, shoots, and small branches it tears from trees, fruit, grasses, and aquatic plants. They also feed on the vast majority of seeds found in the rainforest. This is known because the diet is studied through observation of browsing, analysis of feces, and studying stomach contents.Although it has been determined via fecal samples that T. kabomani feeds on palm tree leaves and seeds from the genera Attalea and Astrocaryum, much about the diet and ecology of T. kabomani is unknown. Previously discovered tapirs are known to be important seed dispersers and to play key roles in the rainforest or mountain ecosystems in which they occur. It is possible that T. kabomani shares this role with the other members of its genus although further research is required.
Mating
T. terrestris mates in April, May, or June, reaching sexual maturity in the third year of life. Females go through a gestation period of 13 months and will typically have one offspring every two years. A newborn South American tapir weighs about 15 pounds and will be weaned in about six months.Endangered status
The dwindling numbers of the South American tapir are due to poaching for meat and hide, as well as habitat destruction.T. terrestris is generally recognized as an endangered animal species, with the species being designated as endangered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service on June 2, 1970. It has a significantly lower risk of extinction, though, than the other four tapir species.
Conservation of ''T. kabomani''
The species may be relatively common in forest-savanna mosaic habitat. Nevertheless, the species is threatened by prospects of future habitat loss related to deforestation, development and expanding human populations.While this tapir does not seem to be rare in the upper Madeira River region of the southwestern Brazilian Amazon, its precise conservation status is unknown. T. kabomani is limited by its habitat preference and tends not to be found where its preferred mosaic gives way to either pure savannah or forest. This, in combination with the fact that other less restricted tapir species within the area are already classified as endangered, has led scientists to hypothesize that the new species is likely to prove more endangered than other members of its genus. Human population growth and deforestation within southwestern Amazonia threaten T. kabomani through habitat destruction. The creation of infrastructure such as roads as well as two dams planned for the area as of December 2013 further threaten to considerably alter the home range. Hunting is also a concern. The Karitiana tribe, a group of people indigenous to the area, regularly hunt the tapir. Additional threats exist from crocodilians and jaguars, natural predators of tapirs within the area.
Humans aside, the region of the Amazon in which T. kabomani is found has also been highlighted as an area that is likely to be particularly susceptible to global warming and the ecosystem changes it brings.