26/01/08

Recent Tapir Sighting!

We are very excited to report a recent sighting of a tapir only a few kilometers up the valley from Rafiki.

On the 26th January 2008 at around midday someone arrived from the neighboring village 5km further up the valley to tell us that a tapir had fallen into a hole on one of the farms on the mountain above their village.  They don't often come this side of the ridge but this one obviously had.  So I grabbed my camera and got a lift on a motorcycle as far as the village of Rio Blanco, (a journey I would prefer to make on foot or on horseback, given the state of the road, but time was of the essence!)  Then I hiked/ran up the mountain for an hour until I reached the farm.  Unfortunately this poor wee tapir had fallen into the septic tank, and it was a sorry sight to see – but still very exciting.  There were about 15 locals from the village who'd come up to see and try to help get it out.  I wasn't quite sure on what capacity I had been invited - to advise or just take pictures, and although the locals know who I am, I wasn't sure if I had much authority to tell them what to do.  But after observing the situation for a few minutes and seeing how stressed it was, I suggested putting some rocks in the hole and also digging to empty the tank a bit so the tapir could climb out more easily.  The people already there had tried using planks and then taunted the tapir to make it angry so it would climb out. These attempts were unsuccessful! Eventually we managed to empty the pit enough for the tapir to be able to climb out. The animal was frightened and did not want to move with all the people around. Also, it must have been exhausted, since it had fallen in the night before.  So we left a rack of  bananas beside the tank (a tapir’s favorite food) and everyone went home.  It didn't appear injured and was in good body condition (I think it was a youngish male, although I couldn't be sure).

The following morning I went back up to the village to see if there was any news and sure enough it had climbed out under the cover of darkness that night, and hasn’t been seen in the area since.

What a strange day that was.  It was a pretty sad sight but exciting to know for sure that there are tapirs living in the wild so close by and I was also encouraged by the response of the locals - they wanted to save it, not kill it, which is a huge step forward, from the point of view of our project and from the point of view of the species as a whole.

For further reflections on the significance of this event, please see my section on "How do you know that tapirs will not be hunted after the re-introduction?" in Frequently Asked Questions.