Baird’s Tapir social interactions, activity patterns, and site fidelity at ponds of the Maya Forest

Abstract

The Baird’s tapir is an endangered species of the Neotropical Forest. The Maya Forest of southern México hold one of the most important populations of the species. Tapir are solitary, shy, and nocturnal animals of which behavioral observations are very limited. Using camera traps, we revised the social behavior of tapirs that are visiting ponds in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve along 10 years. In these sites, locally named “aguadas”, and that are sites where social interaction may take place, we have found that tapirs are solitary animals, but dedicated some per-centage of their time to socialize with other individuals and these associations can last for months, maybe years. We reported on individuals that have visited some specific sites for periods of 4 and 10 years. There is a male biased sex ratio among the individuals we could identified sexually, and tapirs are nocturnal most of the time, but preferences for early hours of the night was recorded. This is a unique study because it is the first time that social behavior, site fidelity, and sex ratio are presented for the species for several sites, and along 10 years. We hope to advance in the knowledge of the social and ranging behavior of this endangered species of the Neotropical forests.