Tapir Conservation logo

Articles

Vol. 22 No. 31 (2013)

Iridium/GPS Telemetry to Study Home Range and Population Density of Mountain Tapirs in the Rio Papallacta Watershed, Ecuador

Submitted
11 July 2025
Published
2013-12-01

Abstract

Mountain tapirs are one of the least studied of the large mammals. It wasn’t until the 1990’s that the first radio telemetry studies were done on the species and huge gaps still exist in the literature regarding mountain tapir population dynamics. In light of recent technological advances in telemetry equipment, it was decided to execute the current study in order to obtain a clearer picture of mountain tapir population ecology. Between June 2012 and February 2013 two female and four male mountain tapirs were captured and equipped with Iridium/GPS collars. The collars recorded between 92 and 278 days of data resulting in 132 to 324 locations. Mean home ranges were estimated using four different methods: minimum convex polygon (MCP), 648 hectares (ha); Kernel 95% and 50%, 397 and 32 ha; nearest-neighbor convex hull (k-NNCH), 310 ha; Brownian bridge movement model (BBMM), 686 ha. Tapir population density was estimated by extrapolating mean tapir home range size (Kernel 95% and k-NNCH) to the size of the study area (25400 ha), both considering and disregarding home range overlap. Using Kernel, a population density of one individual/357 ha and one individual/245 ha was calculated. Using the k-NNCH method densities of one individual/325 ha and one
individual/307 ha were calculated.

References

  1. Acosta, H., Cavelier, J. & London, S. (1996). Aportes al conocimiento de la biología de la danta de montaña, Tapirus pinchaque, en los Andes Centrales de Colombia. Biotropica 28: 258–266.
  2. Ashley, M.V., Norman. J.E. & Stross. L. (1996). Phylogenetic analysis of the Periossodactylan family Tapiridae using mitochondrial Cytochrome C Oxidase (COII) sequences. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 3: 315-326.
  3. Barongi, R.A. (1986). Tapirs in captivity and their management. American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums Conference Proceedings 1986:96–108.
  4. Caughley, G. & Sinclair, A.R. (1994). Wildlife ecology and
  5. management. Blackwell Science Ltd., Oxford.
  6. Castellanos, A.X. (1994). El tapir andino (Tapirus pinchaque Roulin): crianza de un ejemplar en el Bosque Protector Pasochoa y notas ecológicas en el Parque Nacional Sangay, Ecuador. Tesis de Licenciatura. Universidad Central del Ecuador. Quito.
  7. Castellanos, A.X. & Tapia, A. (2010). Metodología unificada para el estudio sobre uso y preferencia del hábitat, abundancia, densidad poblacional, salud y genética del tapir de montaña en la Cuenca del río Papallacta. Reporte no publicado. Fundación EcoCiencia, Fundación Zoológica del Ecuador, Grupo de Especialistas en Tapires-Ecuador/IUCN. Quito, Ecuador.
  8. Castellanos, A.X. (2011). Andean bear home ranges in the Intag region, Ecuador. Ursus, 22:65–73. url: http://www.andeanbear.org/home-ranges-bears.pdf
  9. Castellanos, A., Ortega-Andrade, H.M., Arias, L., Arias, P. & Ortega, A. (2011). Plan de contingencia y protocolo de seguridad para la captura y manejo del tapir de montaña en la cuenca del río Papallacta, Provincia de Napo. Reporte no publicado. Fundación EcoCiencia, Fundación Zoológica del Ecuador, Grupo de Especialistas en Tapires-Ecuador/IUCN. Quito,Ecuador.
  10. Convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora. (2013). Appendices I, II, and III. url: www.cites.org/eng/app/appendices.html, accessed 10
  11. August 2013.Downer, C. (1991). El tapir andino, especie en peligro. Fundación Ecológica Arcoiris. Arcoiris 5:4–5.
  12. Downer, C. (1996). The mountain tapir, endangered “flagship” species of the high Andes. Oryx 30: 45-58.
  13. ESRI. (2008). ArcGis 9.3. Environmental Systems Research Institute: Redlands, CA.
  14. Getz, W. & Wilmers, C. (2004). A local nearest-neighbor convex-hull construction of home ranges and utilization distributions. Ecography 27: 489-505.
  15. Hooge, P.N., Eichenlaub, W. & Solomon, E. (1999). The animal movement program. United States Geological Survey Alaska Biological Science Center, Anchorage.
  16. Horne, J.S., Garton, E.O., Krone, S.M. & Lewis, J.S. (2007). Analyzing animal movements using brownian bridges. Ecology 88(9) 2354–2363.
  17. Lizcano, D.J. & Cavelier, J. (2000). Densidad poblacional y disponibilidad de hábitat de la danta de montaña (Tapirus pinchaque) en los Andes Centrales de Colombia. Biotropica 32:165–173.
  18. Lizcano, D.J. & Cavelier, J. (2004). Using GPS collars to study mountain tapirs (Tapirus pinchaque) in the Central Andes of Colombia. Tapir Conservation 13:18–23.
  19. Medici, E.P. (2010). Assessing the viability of lowland tapir populations in a fragmented landscape. Ph.D. Dissertation. Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE), University of Kent, UK.
  20. Mohr, C.O. (1947). Table of equivalent populations of North American small mammals. The American Midland Naturalist 37: 223-249.
  21. Padilla, M., Dowler, R.C. & Downer, C.C. (2010). Tapirus pinchaque, (Perissodactyla: Tapiridae). Mammalian Species 42(863):166–182.
  22. R Development Core Team (2008). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-900051-07-0, www.Rproject.org
  23. Schauenberg, P. (1969). Contribution a l’étude du Tapirus pinchaque Roulin 1829. Revue Suisse de Zoologie. Genéve. 76: 211-255.
  24. Seaman, D.E. & Powell., R.A. (1996). An evaluation of the accuracy of kernel density estimators for home range analysis. Ecology 77:2075–2085.
  25. Sierra, R. (Ed.). (1999). Propuesta preliminar de un Sistema de Clasificación de Vegetación para el Ecuador Continental. Proyecto INEFAN / GEF-BIRF y EcoCiencia. Quito-Ecuador.
  26. Stummer, V.M. (1971). Wolltapire, Tapirus pinchaque in Ecuador. Der Zoolog. Garten 40 (3): 148-159.
  27. Tapia, A., Nogales, F., Castellanos, A.X., Tapia, M. & Tirira, D. (2011). Tapir andino (Tapirus pinchaque). Pp. 98–100 en: Libro rojo de los mamíferos del Ecuador. D. Tirira, editor, 2da edición. Fundación mamíferos y conservación, Pontifica Universidad Católica del Ecuador y Ministerio del Ambiente del Ecuador. Publicación Especial sobre los Mamíferos del Ecuador
  28. 8. Quito.
  29. Thornback, J. & Jenkins, M. (1982). Mountain, woolly or Andean tapir. Pp. 443–445 in The IUCN mammal red data book. Part 1.International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, Gland, Switzerland.
  30. Urgiles, C., Gallo, F., Borman, R. & Zapata, G. (2013). Densidad poblacional y patrones de actividad del tapir de montaña (Tapirus pinchaque), en cuatro localidades del Parque Nacional Cayambe-Coca y Reserva Ecológica Antisana, Ecuador. Primer Congreso Latinoamericano de Tapires- Segundo Congreso Ecuatoriano de Mastozoología, pp 117. Puyo, Pastaza, Ecuador.
  31. Wilson, R. A. & Wilson, S. (1973). Diet of captive tapirs, Tapirus spp. International Zoo Yearbook 13:213–217.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Similar Articles

1-10 of 131

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.