and will attempt to clarify if and how
T pinchaque uses the paramo as a
feeding and resting area. From
information learned and methods
perfected in these studies, they will go
on to try to estimate the population of
T pinchaque in Colombia. They report
that in their study area the forest is
quite fragmented in the lower zone,
but is less so in the upper zone; higher
still, the paramo is in very good
condition.
 Diego Lizcano adds that while the
project is currently located in the
Departamento de Tolima, it will soon
move to other sites along the
Cordillera Central in Colombia.

Valeria Piarr
v-pizarr@uniandes.edu.co

Diego Lltrano
ewlvege@russ.uniandes.edu.co

Laboratorio de Ecoloaga Vegeal
Departantenio de Ciencias Bioldgicas
Universidad de los Andes
Canrre 1 No. 18A-70
Bogotd, Colombia

Colombia's tapirs

In southern Colombia, we have a
network of reserves owned mainly by
local townspeople and farmers. While
making assessments and biodiversity
inventories of these reserves over the
last three years, I have found relict
populations of mountain tapirs (Tapinus
pinchaque) in spectacular paramos and
mountainjungles. Besides tapirs, there
remain spectacled bears and other rare
mammals, such as pudu deer,
mountain woolly monkey, Andean
wolf puma, and the mountain harpy
eagle (Oroaetus isidor).
 But the news overall is not good.
After three years in the mountains of
southern Colombia, I have found that
the trend towards extinction of T
pinchaque continues at a fast pace. On
the Putumayo/Narifio border, very
important areas for tapir and other
Andean wildlife, the destruction
continues even with increased
conservation awareness by the local
communities. The city government of


Pasto is planning to dam the upper
Guamues River. This project, the
"Multipurpose Project," will generate
electricity, fresh water and irrigation,
but it will also mean that huge areas of
pdramo and prime mountain tapir
habitat will be flooded. Penetration
into the area by project workers
resulted in the killing of a female
mountain tapir last December. Her
calf was taken alive, but we have been
unable to locate it. We fear that it may
have been taken to a zoo outside of
Colombia. (There are currently
neither T pinchaque nor T bairdii in any
Colombian zoo that we are aware of
Sometimes rare Colombian animals
are used in exchanges with foreign
zoos for animals such as zebras or
camels that are hard for a Colombian
zoo to obtain.) [Ed note: Wealthy private
collectors will also pay illegallyfor rare
species ] Opening of the upper
Guamues area is also bringing local
hunters. We suspect that in the last
fifty years, hunting has been
responsible for killing hundreds of
mountain tapirs throughout its range.
In Colombia, hunting has decimated
mountain tapir populations in the
northern part of the Eastern Cordillera
(possibly up to the border of
Wnezuela), in the central and
southern parts of the country, the
Southern Andes in Nariflo south to
Ecuador and Peru, and most of the
Central Cordillera as far north as Los
Nevados National park or Nevado del
Ruiz. No records exist for the Western
Cordillera, but tapirs have been
observed on the upper ridges.
 Due to control by local authorities,
a good-sized population seems to be
recovering in the Macizo Central
region after almost being wiped out by
hunters. In the Sumapaz region, south
of Bogota, both mountain tapirs and
spectacled bears are reported to be
abundant due to control by guerrillas
(FARC, Revolutionary Colombian
Armed Forces) in the area. They have
announced that it is forbidden to
molest or kill either of these species,
and harsh penalties are exacted from
those who do so.
 Until the 1960s, the mountain tapir
was quite abundant around Laguna de


La Cocha. The tapir population in this
area was abundant and so unafraid of
humans that hunters were able to kill
them easily. They were tracked with
dogs and chased into rivers, where
they were then killed with machetes,
spears or shotguns (methods still used
for hunting mountain tapirs). In the
last twenty years, the mountain tapir
has been reported as very rare by the
local community, although they say
that the animal still exists in paramos
and forests further from the village.
 Recently I have heard from a
reliable source that the mountain tapir
is quite abundant in the southern pan
of the Paramo de Sumapaz, the largest
of the Andean paramos, located south
of Bogoti, on the Eastern Cordillera.
There is a strong guerilla presence in
the area, which insures the protection
of mountain tapir, spectacled bear and
other rare wildlife.
 It will be important for us to learn
where in Colombia the abundant
populations of mountain tapirs are
located. I hope to be able to take part
in such an effort if resources can be
found. Once the project is undertaken,
it will be necessary to move cautiously,
because the guerrillas are very strong
in many of the andes of Colombia, and
the war will pose threats to
researchers. It is rather incredible to
observe that the guerrillas are trying to
preserve the species by means of strict
laws and enforcement, where the
government of Colombia has failed
through inability and lack ofinterest.
 InJanuary 1998 researchers found
abundant tracks of an unknown
species at 3000 m on the western slope
of the Farallones de Cali in the
Western Cordillera. It could be either
T pinchaque or T bairdii. Baird's tapir is
reported to reach elevations of 3600 m
(Tapir Action Plan p. 31),while the
mountain tapir may descend to 1400
m (Downer 1997). Today, T bairdii is
very rare in thejungles of western
Colombia (the Choco), but locals still
report it in a few inaccesible areas. No
recent reports have been published on
this species in Colombia.
 There is a contact zone between T
baindii and T temslris colombianus where
both species are sympatric (the upper


page 10 / Tapir Conservaia. Newsleter of the IUCWNSSC Tapir Specialist Group Editor: Sharon Maola, PO. Box 1787, Belize Cty. Beize E-mal: BellzeZoo@btl.nel