In the Field: Patricia Medici's tapir project - third capture day

More photos
On July 19, 2006, Patricia Medici wrote:

THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER!

Dear Friends,

Some more good news!!!! This morning we captured our third tapir ... in the very last day of this capture round!!! In fact, it was a recapture, this adult female called Tina that was first captured and radio-collared in April 2004. We were extremely lucky to recapture this animal as we were already thinking that we needed to recapture her to retrieve her radio-collar. Well, mission accomplished!!! We removed her radio-collar and collected all the necessary biological materials for her second epidemiological assessment.

This was a very productive capture round. We captured 3 tapirs in 11 days, and we are all looking forward to increasing this number of animals over the next years as we move forward with our epidemiological monitoring program.

Hope you enjoyed the news from the field and pictures we have been sending over the past days! I will certainly continue to keep you all posted about our activities here in the field and about the plans for our next tapir project in the Pantanal!!!

You all take care, hugs,

Pati

_________________________________________________________

Patrícia Medici

M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology, Conservation and ManagementPhD Candidate, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of KentLowland Tapir Project, IPÊ - Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research)Chair, IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG)Convener, IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) - Brasil Regional Network

Avenida Perdizes, 285, Vila São Paulo, Teodoro Sampaio, CEP: 19280-000, São Paulo, BRAZILPhone & Fax: +55-18-3282-4690 / Cell Phone: +55-18-8119-3839

E-mail: epmedici@uol.com.br or medici@ipe.org.br

Web IPÊ: http://www.ipe.org.br/

Web IUCN/SSC TSG: http://www.tapirspecialistgroup.org/

Web IUCN/SSC CBSG: http://www.cbsg.org/

Web DICE: http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/dice/

Protect your home against Carbon Monoxide: http://www.carbonmonoxidekills.com/

_________________________________________________________

In the Field: Patricia Medici and her team capture their second tapir in three days

See more photos

A note from Patricia Medici:

Dear Friends,

Just a brief message to let you all know that this morning there was another tapir inside one of our traps!!! Our second capture in 3 days! This time it was an adult male, a large one with an estimated weight of approximately 250 kg. Once again the manipulation went really well and we managed to collect all the samples we need for the epidemiological analysis.

Please continue to keep your fingers and toes crossed and wish us luck!!!! Enjoy the pictures!

You all take care,

Pati

_________________________________________________________

Patrícia Medici

M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology, Conservation and ManagementPhD Candidate, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of KentLowland Tapir Project, IPÊ - Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research)Chair, IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG)Convener, IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) - Brasil Regional Network

Avenida Perdizes, 285, Vila São Paulo, Teodoro Sampaio, CEP: 19280-000, São Paulo, BRAZILPhone & Fax: +55-18-3282-4690 / Cell Phone: +55-18-8119-3839

E-mail: epmedici@uol.com.br or medici@ipe.org.br

Web IPÊ: http://www.ipe.org.br/

Web IUCN/SSC TSG: http://www.tapirspecialistgroup.org/

Web IUCN/SSC CBSG: http://www.cbsg.org/

Web DICE: http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/dice/

Protect your home against Carbon Monoxide: http://www.carbonmonoxidekills.com/

_________________________________________________________

In the Field: Lowland tapir captured for study by Patrici Medici and her team in Brazil

See more photos

A note from Patricia Medici:

Dear Friends,

Just a brief message to share a little piece of good news! We are carrying out a small tapir capture round here in the field. Our main objective is to collect biological samples for epidemiological and genetics studies. As you all know, our long-term lowland tapir research project here in the Atlantic Forests of the Pontal do Paranapanema Region in São Paulo State, Brazil, has always included very strong epidemiological and genetics components. Over the past 10 years, we have been able to collect a huge amount of biological samples and all our results will be coming out very soon, in the form of Ph.D. dissertations and papers. From now on, the main idea for our work in the Pontal region is to establish a long-term tapir monitoring program that we will carry out over the next many years. One of the components of this program is to monitor tapir health and genetics, so we will be conducting capture rounds twice a year in order to collect biological materials. We are not installing radio-collars.

We started this first capture round as part of the monitoring program a couple of days ago, and will continue for 10 more days. We are using four traps (corrals), three in the park and one in a forest fragment. Yesterday we captured our first tapir, an adult female, with an estimated weight of about 200kg. It wasn't a very large tapir. The manipulation went really well and we were able to collect everything we needed to collect, including blood, tissue, swabs, ectoparasites etc.

There are other tapirs walking right next or in front of our traps, so we should have more captures to report over the next days!

Keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck!!!! Enjoy the pictures!

You all take care,

Pati

Note: The tapir, of course, was unharmed and soon went back to its normal activities. . . . ________________________________________________________

Patrícia Medici

M.Sc. in Wildlife Ecology, Conservation and ManagementPhD Candidate, Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of KentLowland Tapir Project, IPÊ - Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas (Institute for Ecological Research)Chair, IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG)Convener, IUCN/SSC Conservation Breeding Specialist Group (CBSG) - Brasil Regional Network

Avenida Perdizes, 285, Vila São Paulo, Teodoro Sampaio, CEP: 19280-000, São Paulo, BRAZILPhone & Fax: +55-18-3282-4690 / Cell Phone: +55-18-8119-3839

E-mail: epmedici@uol.com.br or medici@ipe.org.br

Web IPÊ: www.ipe.org.br

Web IUCN/SSC TSG: www.tapirspecialistgroup.org

Web IUCN/SSC CBSG: www.cbsg.org

Web DICE: http://www.kent.ac.uk/anthropology/dice/

Protect your home against Carbon Monoxide: http://www.carbonmonoxidekills.com/
________________________________________________________

Beautiful tapir mola from San Blas Islands, Panama

BAIRD'S TAPIR ART:
TRADITIONAL HAND-MADE MOLA FROM PANAMA
This detailed stitchery is 16 inches wide x 12 inches tall.

Molas are clothing art of the Kuna Indians of Panama. This mola from the San Blas Islands consists of a fine-line pattern of the most traditional style and quality.

During our two two weeks in Panama in January, 2006, we saw a quite a number of molas, but only TWO depicted the tapir in this traditional mola form made of FINE LINES OF COLOR. One is in this auction, and one we will keep for our own collection. We found a few other molas depicting tapirs that were made in a more modern applique style using larger areas of color, and these will be put online as we have time. We believe that the traditional-style TAPIR mola IN THIS AUCTION is extremely rare. Molas originated as wearable art. The intricate designs made by the Kuna women lasted longer than the clothing they were attached to. When the blouse wore out, the decorative panel was unstitched from the surrounding cloth and recycled when it was re-sewn into a new blouse. These days, many molas are made strictly for the tourist trade. That is probably the case with the one shown here as well. The backing is white, and up to three layers have been added on top, inlcuding the black. The delicate hand stitching can be seen on the back. None of this piece was made by machine. Although the piece was made in the San Blas Islands, we purchased it in Panama City. The piece is as-made with trimmed edges and is perfect for framing.

Tapirs in Panama: Although many people in those in countries where tapirs live have never seen nor heard of one, we were excited to find several people in Panama City as well as a few local people in the mountain villages we visited who were passionately interested in the tapir's survival. Baird's tapir is the only tapir species living in Panama. Its total numbers there are unknown but are estimated to be about 300 to 500 individuals, essentially broken into two population areas - one in the mountains of the west near Costa Rica, and one in the low-lying jungles of the Darien. The lowlands along the north coast include the area in which this mola was made. Baird's tapir is endangered throughout its range of southern Mexico to northern Colombia. Adrian Benedetti, Director of the Summit Zoo just outside Panama City, has taken special interest in tapirs and is beginning to network with other Panamanian environmentalists to find ways of protecting these amazing animals.

A note on the tapir: Baird's tapirs weigh about 500 to 600 pounds. They have four toes on each front foot and three toes on each rear foot. Every toe is encased in a small hoof. Tapirs are related to horses and rhinos, and have remained very little changed for about 20 million years. Now all tapir species are endangered throughout their ranges.

Finding tapirs on the Web with Google News and blogs - and a note on using images

Colombo, a Baird's tapir at the
Kanazawa Zoo, Yokohama, Japan, 1997

There are so many more tapirs on the Web now than there were when The Tapir Gallery went online in 1996 - yes, it's been online that long! It's loads of fun looking at them! Of course, Google is a great way to find online tapirs using either the text search or the image search. We discovered recently that Google also has a news search, and it's an excellent way to find tapirs. Try both of these links: tapir and tapirs. Different listings come up when you use the singular and plural. From these links you can also subscribe to the Google Alerts for tapir news, and new posting links will arrive conveniently in your mailbox.

There is also an amazing number of references to tapirs in blogs these days. I like the Google blog search, myself.

Just a note of editorial here - OK, a rather long one, since I think it's important and have been dealing with it for about ten years. With so much posting and sharing (and I believe those are wonderful attributes of the Web), there is also a lot of stealing. That, I don't like. If you use an image, please ask the Web author or photographer for permission. It seems like a simple coutesy, but many, many people don't bother. The Tapir Gallery has given permission for students to use pictures in their school projects without asking first, but we do require them to give credit for where they got the images. If you want to make a birthday card for your mom or boyfriend, hey, don't worry about it. We're happy to have you do that. It's not a commercial or re-published use. You know what we're talking about - using images made by others and promoting them as your own work even if that's not stated.

The Tapir Gallery uses many of our own pictures, and we also use images supplied to us by others. We use them by permission and with credit. We believe it is OK to LINK to someone's image without asking, because by making a link a person is telling others where they got the image. We feel that this is important. Of course, if you do ask, you may get a link back, and that's a plus in the Web world.

We usually loan our pictures freely (depending on the project), and we appreciate credit and a link back to The Tapir Gallery (www.tapirback.com/tapirgal). If we don't know the photographer and we want to use an image on our site, we state that we don't know the source of the picture and will be glad to credit the owner when we find out who it is. We invite them to write to us. It's simply a matter of being honest. We appreciate it when other Web sites do the same.

I have been surprised over the years to see how many of my own tapir images (photos I took personally or that someone gave me to use) were posted on other Web sites with no credit. It's great to know that someone likes your pictures enough to want to use them, but it is also disconcerting because of the amount of time, energy, expense, artistic vision, and creativity that go into making pictures (photos or art) and posting them online. Everyone deserves credit for their work.

Left: A mountain tapir at the Colorado Springs Zoo. Photo by Sheryl Todd, The Tapir Gallery.

I recently found one of my original mountain tapir photos (shown at left) on a Web site that advertised photos that could be used "for free and without asking permission." I don't know how it got there, and when I wrote the Webmaster, the e-mail bounced. When I saw the same photo used without credit (of course, because they had gotten it from this "no-credit-needed" source), I contacted the authors, who were then happy to give the proper acknowledgement.

In addition to "giving credit where it is due," we, and most people publishing original work, try to give a context for the picture. I think this is very important. The species can be given correctly for identification, the location of the photo is given, and perhaps the circumstances of the photo are included. This interesting, informative, and often-educational material is usually lost when an image is stolen or mis-used, and that is unfortunate for anyone who loves these animals or simply needs the information in their research. Let's all try to play fair. It's not that hard. This post took approximately two hours. Yeah, original work does take time and thought.

Remembering Heidi and her tapir photos

Heidi Frohring, a friend and the tapir keeper at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, passed away May 1, 2005. Yesterday I came across a folder of 96 of the photos she'd sent me over the past few years. Most of them are of the tapirs at the Woodland Park Zoo. One or two are of tapirs elsewshere, a few are of her human friends, there are couple of Heidi, a few are of other animals, and one is of flowers. Putting them online properly takes such a long time, and I wanted to get them up quickly so everyone could enjoy them. Click on either photo above and you'll find a list of picture links. Click on each link separately to see the photo. There is also a zip file with all of the photos that you can download near the top of the picture list.

I love Heidi's photos. Like her, they are creative, interesting, and bursting with character. They also give a sense of how much she loved her tapirs.

Baird's Tapir Video on NGC.com

Patricia Medici sent us this link to the video. When the ad is finished playing, you'll see nice tapir scenes - enjoy!

New tapirs at Mountain View

A Malayan (or Asian) tapir baby follows its parent at the Mountain View Conservation Breeding Centre in BC, Canada, near Langley. Here the tapirs have unusually large enclosures. Mountain view has two pair of Asian tapirs and has recently aquired a male mountain tapir to pair with their female. Word has it that the two get along famously. This makes only three pair of mountain tapirs in captivity anywhere.

Mountain View has two pair of Asian tapirs. All of their tapirs live in extremely generous enclosures (almost the wrong word, since you cannot - or can barely - see one side from the other). One enclosure for the Asian tapirs has steep ravine and a heavily-wooded landscape where the tapirs gallop surprisingly fast and show their abilities as climbers. Each pair enjoys a small lake. One of the features here is that both parents are left together to raise the infants. This process has been successful at Mountain View and has made for some interesting observations and viewing.

Both of the above photos are from the Mountain View Web site. The calf was born sometime during this past winter, so please follow the link above, phone ahead and ask about the baby if you're expecting to see stripes and spots. They may be faded by this time as the calf has been growing.

Tapir rescue in Sumatra

An amazing photo series was sent to us recently from Indonesia, and I wanted to put a link in the blog so it's easy to find. The page has a permanent home in our Tapirs in Pictures section under Asian Tapirs (Photos of Living Tapirs).

What's new?

This is Sheryl, originator of the Tapir Gallery Web site and President of the Tapir Preservation Fund. Years ago I tried making a "What's New" page on this site, and it was way too hard to keep it up to date and then archive all of the new (now old, but full of good links) stuff. I'm hoping the blog format will help.

Yesterday while messing with the new blog in the tapir gift shop, I clicked on the Google News link and up came April the Tapir's birthday party from the day before, which I thought was so cool. Sharon Matola had just e-mailed me that they were going to have another all-out birthday party for April. This news story was just what I was looking for, and I wanted a link to tell you about it quickly. Let's see if this does the trick.

Feel free to leave replies. Bookmark the site, and let's have fun with the blog.

Sheryl