del Toro responded to survey
questions sent by the Tapir Research
Institute of Claremont, California. He
reported that only one death had
occurred in an adult Baird's tapir in the
zoo's collection. It was caused by
accidental eating of a piece of wire,
which pierced the tapir's intestine. He
listed births as 3.4, of which 13 had
been reared all by the mother. Of the
juvenile deaths, the two males were
listed as killed by the father, while the
female infant had been crushed by the
mother.
 Tapirs were kept in pairs in
enclosures that measured 40 x 40 m
and were well-planted with trees. Each
had a pool 6 x4 m and 1 m deep;
artificial caves were used for housing.
Feed consisted of grains, fruits and a
variety of local plants known to be
eaten by tapirs in the wild. No other
species shared the enclosures. The
earliest age the tapirs at Tuxtla
Gutierrez were known to mate was
about 4 years, and all copulation
observed had taken place on land.
Health problems had been rare, with
only two conditions mentioned: rectal
prolapsus ("not serious") shortly before
giving birth on two occasions; and
fever.
 Within a year or so after the 1970
survey response, an encephalomyelitis
epizootic swept the state of Chiapas. At
that time, Tuxtda Guiterrez had seven
tapirs, only two of which survived the
disease (see Tapir Conservation, Number
7, p 3). It is unknown to me whether
the survivors were the original pair,
although the surviving female was
already pregnant at the time of the
epizootic. Six months afterward, she
had a stillbirth. The male appeared to
be impotent for some time, but both
recovered and a healthy infant was
born on 20 January 1973. On February
4, the male mounted the female again.
The zoo had changed its protocol,
leaving both parents with the new
baby. On 24 July, Dr. Alvarez del Toro
wrote, "So far they raised the young
who is at present well grown." He
went on to say that the older male
would soon begin to persecute the
young one. As a general note on
Baird's tapir temperament, he wrote:
"Our experience is that lone males


usually turn mean, probably all, the
females not so. Sometimes the males
are mean [from a very young age]. We
had a male that was vicious since two
months old, biting the legs of the
keepers."
 The Tuxtla Gutierrez Zoo
continued to report their census to the
International Zoo Yearbook, but due to
discrepancies in the figures published,
it is not clear exactly how the number
of tapirs at the zoo increased or
decreased after 1973. It appears that,
while they continued to breed, the
population never again reached more
than four. The number appears to have
dropped again in the 1980s, and in the
early 1990s a wild-born male was
captured and transferred to the zoo
according to the International
Studbook.
 Ten years and nine months after the
first tapir was born at the Tuxla
Gutierrez Zoo, the United States had
its first birth of a non-hybrid Baird's
tapir. The Los Angeles and San Diego
Zoos had acquired a pair each between
1965 and 1967. All were wild born.
The pair at the Los Angeles Zoo gave
birth to a stillborn female on 31
December 1970. In 1973 another was
stillborn, but on 19 February 1974, the
pair produced a healthy male. By that
time, San Diego Zoo's pair had already
produced a healthy male on 14
November 1972. Both pair of founders
(plus a second wild-caught female
soon paired with the male at San
Diego) continued breeding, to giving
us many of the first captive-born
generation of Baird's tapirs in the U.S.

SOURCES:
 Letters Dr. Miguel Alvarez del Toro,
Director, Parque Zoologico de Tuxtla
Gutierrez, Chiapas, Mexico.
 Internaional Zoo Yearbook, numerous
issues, esp. Vol 6,1966, article by Dr.
Miguel Alvarez del Toro: "A Note on the
Breeding of Baird's Tapir, Tapirus bairdi, at
Tuxtl Gutierrez Zoo, pp 196-197.
 Letter to from Dennis R.H. Levy to the
Tapir Research Institute, 24June 1973.
 International Studblok forCentralAmerican
Tapir, 31XIL94, published by MichaelJ.
Crotty, Los Angeles Zoo.


Publications

 Brooks, Daniel M.; RE. Bodmer; and S.
Matola, compilers. Tapin Status Survey and
Conservaion Action Plan. (English, Spanish,
Portuguese). Gland, Switzerland and
Cambridge, UK: IUCN/SSC Tapir
Specialist Group. IUCN; 1997; (viii)164
PP.
 Janssen, D., RA. Rideout, and M.S.
Edwards. Tapir Medicine. In: Fowler. M.E-
and RE. Miller. Zoo and WddAnimde
Medicine: Curren Therapy 4. W.B. Saunders
Co. Philadelphia, USA. 1999. Pp. 562-568.
 Marineros, Leonel and E Martinez-
Gallegos Guia de campo de los Mafferos de
Honduras (A fldguide to tdt nammnals of
Honduras) 374 pp. In Spanish. 13 full color
and 45 black and white illustrations;
includes rats, bats, marine mammals, skulls
and tracks). 53 distribution maps. Tapirs
appear on pp. 251-254. (Availability: see
section on Honduras.)
 Naranjo. Eduardo. J. and E. Cruz.
Ecologia del tapir (Tapirns bairdii) en la
Reserve de la Biosfera La Sepulura,
Chiapas, M6xico. Actr Zoologica Mexicana.
1998; (73):111-125.
 Scits, Stefan. Tapire im Zoo -
Bemerkungen zu Aktivitaeten,
Sozialverhalcen und interspezifischen
Kontakten. [Tapirs in Zoos remarks on
activities, social behavior and interspecific
interactions]. Der Zoologisrhe Garte N.E
1998; 68(1):17-38.
 Todd, Sheryl and S. Matola. Tapir
Specialist Group: Conservation on the
Edges. Species. 1998Jun 30; (30):60-61.



TPF activities

The Tapir Preservation Fund was
founded in 1996 in Palisade, Colorado,
USA, and was granted 501 (c) (3)
charitable status in May 1998. Some of
our activities this year have included:
* Representingthe IUCN Tapir
Specialist Group at an international
conference on information technology
in conservation.
* Consulting on tapir biology, ecology
etc., for: The National Zoo in
Washington, D.C.; Charlestown
Library, NSW, Australia; Digital Frog
International, Inc.
* Providing a resource link from
Encyclopedia Britannica Online


Tapir Conservaion, Newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group Editor: Sharon Maola, RO. Box 1787, Beize City, Belte E-mail: BelizeZoo@btl.ne / page 5