Lowland tapir

    The lowland tapir lives in the rainforests of South America, and is strongly affected when the forests are decreasing at a furious rate. Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative (LTCI) working in Brazil gathering information to build the world's largest tapir database. With the help of this, strategies can be designed for conservation the tapir in different parts of Brazil - and Kolmården supports the important work.

    The tapir's habitat is being destroyed

    Rainforests used to cover 14% of the Earth's surface, but today that figure has dropped to half. The trees are cleared, among other things, to make way for mines, large-scale cultivation of sugarcane and palm trees, and to be converted into pasture for domestic animals. This leads to great difficulties for the animals that live there, which among other things affects the lowland tapir. Poaching is another major threat to the species, as are traffic accidents and pesticide poisoning.

    The Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative (LTCI) gathers information and disseminates knowledge

    The Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative (LTCI) has been working since 1996 to collect information about the tapir and the different areas of Brazil where it lives; Atlantic Forest, Pantanal, Cerrado and Amazon. The long-term goal is to ensure the survival of the lowland tapir in the four different plant areas.

    The animals are caught, put to sleep and fitted with GPS transmitters so that you can follow where and how they move in the areas and the social interaction between them. IN in connection with the anesthesia, health checks are also carried out through blood analysis, urine, fur and droppings.

    Important information is also collected using exposed cameras such as registers and takes automatic pictures when the animals pass. All the collection of facts is used to build the largest tapir database in the world. The knowledge helps when plans for the conservation of the lowland tapir are to be drawn up.

    To make people aware of the tapirs and the difficulties they face, LTCI also works with educational programs for schools and landowners. Also via, among other things, posters, events, reports and information on social media, the focus is on the unknown animal to many.

    The money from the Kolmården Foundation goes, among other things, to the work of capturing and euthanizing the animals. This concerns, for example, costs for medicines and sampling materials, as well as other overheads in connection with these field works.