Dog assaults on mountain tapirs spotlight a gr

Researchers who captured footage of canine assaults on endangered mountain tapirs in Colombia are calling for motion to guard threatened wildlife.

Using digital camera traps, a crew from WILD Campo Silvestrethe Tiger Cats Conservation Initiativeand the Fundación Caipora captured pictures of two assaults within the Campoalegre Soil Conservation District, Santa Rosa de Cabal in a interval of two months.

Domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) have been photographed chasing and attacking mountain tapirs (Tapirus pinchaque) in a protected space of the Central Andes. These pictures have been subsequently revealed in a research paper revealed by the open-access journal, Neotropical Biology and Conservation.

The research affords insights into the affect of home dogs on wildlife, significantly on species of conservation concern such because the mountain tapir. The authors spotlight the pressing want for inhabitants administration and management of home dogs inside and round protected areas.

Conservation measures reminiscent of neutering and vaccination packages for stray and owned dogs within the neighborhood of pure reserves are have been not too long ago utilized to protect the threatened clouded tiger cat (Leopardus pardinoides) within the area. The analysis crew name for these measures to be prolonged to WILD Campo Alegre and surrounding lands.

“Domestic dog incursion into protected areas is a global threat to wildlife that is difficult to mitigate because of the inherent social dilemma of controlling dog populations,” says Juan Camilo Cepeda-Duque, lead creator of the research.

“Dogs can contribute to the extinction of vertebrate species, can imbalance the trophic dynamics amongst predator guilds and even have the potential to collapse entire ecological communities,” he continues.

The mountain tapir is an emblematic herbivore of the Andean cloud forest, globally categorised as ‘Endangered’ in response to the IUCN Red List resulting from habitat loss and poaching. The presence and aggressive behaviour of home dogs not solely threaten the bodily wellbeing of those tapirs but additionally their reproductive efficiency, foraging effectivity, and general inhabitants well being resulting from elevated stress, potential for illness transmission, and alterations in habitat use.

The analysis crew spotlight that their observations will not be remoted circumstances, as locals beforehand reported the identical dogs chasing and attacking mountain tapirs and cattle. Additionally, no detection of juvenile mountain tapirs was obtained within the survey.

A brand new protected space within the northern excessive of the Campoalegre Soil Conservation District has been established by the NGO WILD Nature Foundationsignificantly with the goal of defending the habitat of mountain tapirs and the final remnant populations of the fuerte’s parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi) within the area. Currently, the reserve is finishing up an unprecedented restoration program, planting 1000’s of timber to get better the land as soon as cleared for the institution of cattle ranching.

Original supply

Cepeda-Duque JC, Arango-Correa E, Frimodt-Møller C, Lizcano DJ (2024) Howling shadows: First report of home canine assaults on globally threatened mountain tapirs in excessive Andean cloud forests of Colombia. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 19: 25-33.