What's involved with studying tapirs in the wild?

TSG's Eduardo Naranjo radio collaring a Baird's tapir, Mexico

TSG's Patricia Medici's project team, Morro do Diabo State Park, Brazil, 2006

Studying tapirs in the wild requires many resources and a solid scientific question that only study in the wild can answer. The sort of person attracted to research on tapirs will need to be intrepid, creative, motivated, and dedicated. Usually a researcher conducts their research and gathers his or her data while pursuing a masters or Ph.D degree or if sponsored by a zoo or scientific NGO (such as studies involving population status). Many researchers also continue their work in the field after securing positions at Universities in their particular area of study (biology, genetics, veterinary medicine, etc).

There are many rewards to working on a research project: being in a beautiful wild setting, unique wildlife viewing opportunities, comradery with other researchers, the feeling that you're making a difference or solving a scientific puzzle. The presence of researchers in an area can also be a deterrent to poaching of certain animals.

Actual time in the field--the best part about research--does not make up the bulk of a researcher's time. Often fundraising, coordinating travel and transportation, hiring and training field assistants, analyizing data in the lab or at the academic institution and writing up reports and papers on findings makes up the majority of a researcher's time. Studying tapirs in the wild can also expensive. Many tapir projects, such as those in Asia and parts of Latin America, barely have a budget to capture animals, to work with radiotelemetry, etc, due to the costs of the equipment.

TSG's Olga Montenegro travelling to a research site in the Colombian Amazon

Research techniques that require little money or expensive equipment
monitoring animal tracks
walking fixed transects to count occurances of plants and animals
talking with members of local communities about their experiences with wildlife

Approximate field costs for a researcher doing an extensive field study
(NOTE: this list is incomplete and is a composite of typical expenses from various research project proposals)

Transportation
$100/month fuel for boat or car travel around field site

Trapping and tracking tapirs
$3500 for GPS tracking collar, refurbishment about $600
$300 for a new VHF radio transmitter tracking collar, $200 for a refurbished one
$1500 for a receiver and about $200-$400 for a good antenna
$15 for 5 immobilization darts
$300 for dart gun
$100-$300 for drugs for one tapir capture, depending on capture protocol or method

Documenting field work
$500--$1000 digital camera, bag and storage discs
$400 for a digital camera trap
$200 for a film camera trap
$2000 laptop and software necessary to compile data
$100 binoculars

Room, board & staff expenses
$450/month for a field assistant in Peru
$600/month for a field assistant in Brazil
$20/day room & board at a field station or national parks

Education & community outreach
$500 design and print 1000 copies of material appropriate for distributing to schoolchildren in field study area
Time commitment to developing and enacting a simple curriculum for field study area schools