The Influence of Large Herbivores on Neotropical Forests

Abstract

The project “Influence of Large Herbivores on Neotropical Forests” is a coordinated research initiative of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG) that is being carried out in five countries of Latin America: El Rey National Park in Argentina, Morro do Diabo State Park in Brazil, Los Nevados National Park in Colombia, Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica, and Los Amigos Ecological Station in Peru. The coordinators of the project – Silvia Chalukian (Argentina), Patrícia Medici (Brazil), Diego Lizcano (Colombia), Charles Foerster (Costa Rica), and Harald Beck (Peru) – are all members of the TSG. The primary goal of this project is to describe the influence large herbivores (tapirs, peccaries and deer) exert on shaping and maintaining the understory plant communities of five different Neotropical ecosystems in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru, and provide evidence that these animals are vital to the health of tropical forests and that more efforts should be made for their protection. Specifically, the main objective of the study is to examine how the removal of large herbivores will affect the physical structure and floristic diversity of the understory plant communities in primary and secondary forest habitats at each site.