Club Tapir page ready for September's donations

Hi All,

The new page is up. A few changes have been made, and you can see and vote for the current projects via this link. The tapir projects represent long hours of ongoing work - every day, every week, every year. It's so gratifying to see that, whereas a number of years ago tapir work was sporadic and the projects were short, the tapir world now has a number of quality projects that have a longevity of production stretching for years, not months. These projects, like the new ones, need ongoing support. You can read about and help to support one of four tapir conservation and research projects here:

http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/club-tapir/

I wish I could show you more of the actual work that's being done in the field. It's been a goal of the Tapir Preservation Fund to make more of the material available. It is labor-intensive to get the work from the field onto a web site, and I simply haven't had as much time as I'd like to devote to this area. (Volunteers are welcome!) More and more projects are developing their own sites, and we've linked to the ones we know about. It's a lot of work for anyone involved - the research and conservation aspect, and then the proposals and marketing on top of that. There is always so much more going on behind the scenes than can be presented. If you're interested in a particular project, the Principal Investigator (PI) will probably have proposals or material you can read. Just ask and we'll help you contact them. You can also read about ongoing tapir projects on the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group web site. Thanks so much for your support and interest!

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

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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

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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/

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

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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

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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/

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

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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/
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