HISTORY IN THE MAKING: FIRST COLLARED MOUNTAIN TAPIR WITH CALF CAUGHT ON CAMERA. A few days ago, Armando, David, Ben and two ABF volunteers Emily Cook and Christian Vlautin went in search of Pancha, a female tapir captured and collared by Armando around twelve months previous in the paramo high grasslands of the Cayambe Coca National Park. The team arrived up in the paramo, near to Pancha’s range around midday, and in the absence of a clear radio signal from her collar, they climbed up to a distant ridge line hoping she would be just over the other side. Arriving at the top, they once again tested the radio telemetry equipment and still there was no clear signal from Pancha. It appeared that she had migrated into a different area recently and doubts were creeping in that they may not see her, Armando by this point had traversed the ridge a little further along and all of a sudden, he crouched down and waved for silence and for the others to slowly walk over to him. They arrived at Armando’s position and there she was, the magnificent female mountain tapir, Pancha. Mountain tapirs are not only scarce, with less than 3000 left in the wild, but are also very elusive and inhabit the most inhospitable of environments. Yet there she was, and the team were beholding this extremely rare sighting when, all of sudden, there was a rustle in the high grass behind her. As Pancha climbed the steep mountain slope, it became apparent that she was being followed. She was being followed by a beautifully decorated calf of around 3 to 4 weeks of age. This is the one of the only sightings ever of a mountain tapir with calf, and is the very first sighting of a collared tapir with calf. This is an extremely significant breakthrough, and through analysing the satellite data collected over the past few months we will hopefully be able to obtain a good idea of the movement patterns of female mountain tapirs just before, during and after giving birth. As mountain tapirs are prey items, they do not build nests and newborn calves must get to their feet quickly to follow their mother before predators get wind of them. We are extremely excited about this ground-breaking discovery and look forward to not only analysing in detail the habits of a female mountain tapir around the time of birth, but also hope to discover, for the first time, just how long a wild mountain tapir calf stays with the mother before going it alone. Please take a look at this incredible video footage of Pancha and her calf experiencing a close encounter with a white tailed deer up in the Cayambe Coca National Park, Ecuador. https://youtube/watch?v=-J_ppXTG_os
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 22:58:34 +0000
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