Historical and Current Distribution of the Lowland Tapir (Tapirus terrestris colombianus) Population in Northern South America

Abstract

There is a subspecies of tapir, locally called danta, endemic to northern Colombia, described with the name Tapirus terrestris colombianus by Hershkovitz (1954), based on the skin and skull of an adult male collected in the Department of Magdalena, south face of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the original distribution by the author corresponds to the Departments of Magdalena, Bolívar, Córdoba (upper Sinú River), northwestern Antioquia and extinct in the Department of Atlántico. Later, the current distribution of this same subspecies is defined in the regions of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, El Magdalena Medio, La Serranía de San Lucas, the lower part of the Cauca River and the upper Sinú River in Colombia.