Help create "World Tapir Day"

Come join us for an interesting discussion on starting "World Tapir Day" on the TAPIRS Google Group! World Tapir Day also has its own domain now, and the splash page is up. Don't miss this adorable photo!

New plastic tapir!

A new plastic tapir, or new tapir toy of any description is a rare event and should be celebrated! Want to help name the tapir? One free plastic tapir just like this one is the prize! Our new plastic tapir is lifelike, soft and squeaky, and has ALMOST the right number of toes. Read more about the tapir and the naming contest (valid through January 31, 2008) in Tapir and Friends Wildlife World Online Gift Shop. Participants from all countries are welcome. We'll ship your winning tapir anywhere!

Beautiful, colorful tapir poster with your donation!

Dear Tapir Fans and Friends,

This absolutely beautiful tapir poster art is yours with a donation of $100.00 or more to the Tapir Preservation Fund's "Club Tapir" program. One hundred is the lucky number, because, as always, 100% of your donation goes directly to the project. TPF pays for wiring fees when money has to be sent out of the US. This is a GREAT opportunity for anyone who wants to support tapir work and get a beautiful poster into the bargain. We pay for shipping the poster to you as well. There are several still available as of January 26, 2008. Just click on the Club Tapir link above! Extra benefits this month: we still have over $400.00 in matching funds from a generous donor. Your donation will be matched and even more money can be sent directly to the Club Tapir winning project! Check it out today!

Wonderful tapir pix from Colombia!

I just received these delightful lowlanad tapir photos with e-mail from Camilo Muños. He wrote:

-------------------------------------

Hi!!! A long long time ago i visited your site. Anyway i just want to show you (And give you!) this pics i took this december at Pereira's Zoo in Colombia.

I think lots of people might wonder how it feels like to touch a tapir snout. Well it feels just like touching the nose of a horse. The same velvety feeling. Keep the good work!

Camilo Muñoz
Investigador Grupo GIGAAU
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click on any photo to get a close up "in-your-face" warm and wonderful view of the tapir!

How much better can it get? :)





Many thanks to you, Camilo! Chevere!!! This is just what I needed today, and I'm probably not the only one who feels this way! I love it!

Sheryl

Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings Everybody
(Inspired by the stories of the Nightmare-devouring Baku)

Original art by ebichu64
First posted on Tapirs Google group
December 13, 2007

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Ben's Zoo: I Spy A Tapir

Originally posted on Tapirs Google group

by ebichu64 ~ Dec 4 2007

Click the image to read the text

Mary wrote:

A newspaper article about a series currently showing on BBC 2 (UK)

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Nov 8, 2007: Fun with "elephant elephant hippo rhino***?"

(All images in this post are copyright Mary Beaird

and have been transferred from the "Tapirs" Google Group

where Mary posted them on November 8, 2007.

Text is by Mary Beaird.)

Er, okay, I've gone all shy. I feel like I'm being a bighead and I'm a little bit uncomfortable with it. (Sheryl put me up to it ^_-)

I write a comic called "elephant elephant hippo rhino...?" It's about two animals in a zoo and what they get up to to relieve the boredom when the humans aren't watching.

It was only ever meant to be a one-off but things didn't quite go to plan and #2 came out last month.

The two main characters are a Tapir called Keanu (after Keanu Reeves) and a Rhino called Dave (because everyone has a friend called Dave).

It's a bit surreal and a lot of the humour is aimed at anime and science fiction fans - with occasional shots at the gaming community and computer "geeks" in general.

It's published by Sweatdrop Studios, but don't rush and buy it online just yet as I am going to try and beg some copies back from stock and gift them to the shop, so you can buy them there and Tapir Gallery gets the benefit from selling them. On the other hand, if you absolutely can't wait until (probably) the New Year, you can buy them at Sweatdrop.com, I'll get 80% back and as I donate to the projects every month you'll be helping me to help the tapirs in a roundabout sort of way. That's all a bit surreal in itself... oh well, never mind.

Anyway, here are a few teasers of the "boys"; the baby girl Tapir with the bow is Trinity - Keanu's little cousin, who turns up for 3 pages in issue 2 (believe me, 3 is quite enough).

If the tapirs look a bit wrong it's because they are aliens poorly desguised as Tapirs.... yes.... REALLY (Well, that's MY story and I'm sticking to it!)






PS. Oh yes, there are some teeshirts knocking around as well made by a company called Genki Gear, and although I still own the characters the tees only half belong to me, so I can't get hold of any of those at the moment. But you never know, maybe later. Until then the good news there is anything I make from the sale of those will go into a Keanu and Dave soft toy fund, and if I manage to make that a reality, Tapir Gallery will get a stack of those to sell!

Anyway, enough of blowing my own trumpet. I'm off to bed. Goodnight.

[Editor's Note: Check out the review on Comic Mole.]

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Baby Mountain Tapir Made by Sergio Sandoval for Tapir and Friends Animal Store

(Originally posted on "Tapirs" Google Group.)

I wouldn't be telling the truth if I didn't say that the resin tapir (made especially for TPF) is CUTER THAN THE PHOTO. This teeny little guy was hard to photograph with the high-contrast white on dark chocolate background. Here's the story:

When we couldn't find a commercially-made plastic baby tapir, we had one made in resin. We call this little guy "Tapircito" (little tapir). At 2 inches from nose to tail, he is totally adorable and definitely "cito." Artist/biologist Sergio Sandoval created our resin baby mountain tapir especially for the Tapir Preservation Fund (TPF) to help raise money for tapir conservation in Colombia and other tapir range countries. Your purchase helps support field projects, genetic studies, and more. Sergio brought his unique artistic perspective to this creation. Tapircito is not only very cute, but also detailed and realistic. The short lines cast into the resin clearly represent the long fur of mountain tapir calves (as the babies are called). There are four toes on each front foot and three on each rear foot as in real tapirs. Not static as many plastic animals tend to be, Tapircito stands with his head curved to the left in a charmingly attentive pose. Our baby mountain tapir was first sculpted in clay by Sergio, then cast in resin at a factory in Bogotá, and finally painted by Sergio and his sister Marcela (also a biologist) using durable nontoxic paints made in the USA.

-- Sheryl (aka Tapirgal)

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Resin (Plastic) Baby Mountain Tapir!

Hi All,

We finally did it - we have a plastic baby tapir in our online gift shop. It's actually made of resin in Colombia. Hand-modeled and locally cast in Bogota, then hand-painted. Come check him out. . . . click here!

Aug 11, 2007: Tapirs at Longleat

Photos by ebichu64

First posted on Tapirs Google group

August 11, 2007

Mary wrote:

Hi all,

Better late than never, here's my little bit on the Tapirs at Longleat. Better Pics next year, I promise!

We managed to pick one of the few sunny days this year has had to offer so far, so it was no surprise to find many of the animals flat out enjoying the sudden warm weather – or maybe they had all fainted from shock. The downside of taking the safari bus was that we didn’t stop as expected at the East African reserve, where the tapirs are kept by default as there isn't a large enough South American section (yet!). The Wallabys are kept there too and they're from New Zealand...

Normally you can get out of your car, have a picnic and see the animals. The bus usually stops for 15 minutes, but not this time. This was mostly due to the amount of traffic that day; the whole tour took 30 minutes longer than expected. The upside was that we got a great view of the monkeys wrecking other people’s cars; they take a fancy to the rubber trim, the wipers, and it’s no use squirting them with the windscreen washers – to them it’s just a free drink. But I wasn’t able to get close to the tapirs as I'd hoped, and all my pictures are thanks to the nifty zoom on my camera. Next time we'll hire a car and avoid the monkeys. Might be called Harold, and finally mum, Jessie.

2. Keeping cool, dad, Jethro.

Longleat have started producing video postcasts, and number 3 has the new baby Tapir "in action". The podcasts are mostly aimed at children and so the narration is a bit... well, you'll see what I mean. "Chaps" - no one talks like that in England any more, "Honest, Guv!"

http://www.longleat.co.uk/video/july07/

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Heidi Frohring Memorial Web Site (letter from Jeff)

From: Jeff Mihalyo
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 1:59 PM
Subject: Heidi Frohring memorial web site.

Hello all,

I hope this message finds you well.

This past spring Heidi has been in my thoughts as she would have been 40 years old on April 6th. May first also marks the 2nd year of her passing. In March I had performed an online search to see if there was any reference to her still out there and discovered much of it disappearing. So I copied what I could find and put it all into one site. Picture and text can be enjoyed at

http://www.mihalyo.com/heidi

This was an emotional process for me as I pored overhundreds of photographs and selected these to represent the part of her life that I shared with her. If any of you have some good photographs or stories, please send them along and I'll add them. I know some of you have good ones. This site is part of my fine art site, and therefore should remain live indefinitely. I also registered it with search engines so that others out there can findit as well. Please forward as you see fit... I'm sure many of the address I have for her friends have expired by now.

Best regards

-Jeff

-- Jeff Mihalyo --

Fine Art
http://www.mihalyo.com/

Commercial Art
http://www.mihalyostudios.com/

New Grants for Tapir Projects

See who's getting grant money from the Tapir Preservation Fund . . .

April 25, 2007: Tapir Mask?

Manaus, Brazil ~ April 25, 2007

Here's another of those pointy-nosed balsa wood masks we saw in the open-air market in Manaus. In this case, it just may be a tapir.

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Jambi the Asian Tapir - Point Defiance Zoo

Photo by Will Mistretta

Point Defiance Zoo, Tacoma, Washington

Photo of Jambi, a Malayan tapir at the Point Defiance Zoo, Tacoma, Washington, courtesy of Will and Libby Mistretta, April 6, 2007. Jambi came to Tacoma from Washington, D.C.

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Tapirs of the World Cross Stitch

Cross Stitch by Sarah C. originally posted by Sue

on Tapirs Google Group

February 22, 2007

Sue wrote:

This is a picture of "Tapirs of the World." Sarah C. created the design and made the beautiful cross-stitch above. Thanks, Sarah!

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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.