Modeling density and habitat preferences of the Mountain Tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) in Northern Peru using spatial mark-resight and occupancy models

Mena J.L.; Rivero J.; Tobler M.W. · Neotropical Mammals: Hierarchical Analysis of Occupancy and Abundance (2023) · DOI: 10.1007/9783031395666_12

Resumen

The mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) is one of the largest Neotropical mammals, with a distribution restricted to montane cloud forest and paramo habitats in the northern Andes. This tapir is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, is also included in CITES Appendix I, and is considered Critically Endangered in Peru. It is threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation as well as hunting throughout its range. Despite its important ecological role, there is little information available about its population ecology. We conducted camera-trapping surveys (60-85 stations), for a total of 23,723 camera-days between 2014 and 2017, during both wet and dry seasons, along elevations from 1600 to 3600 m above sea level at the Tabaconas Namballe National Sanctuary (TNNS) in northern Peru. We estimated a density between 5.87 ind/100 km2 and 9.55 ind/100 km2. Habitat preferences of mountain tapirs appear to be explained by both distance to villages and slope. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved.