Evaluación del Hábitat para la Danta Centroamericana (Tapirus bairdii) en la Zona Norte de Costa Rica

Abstract

Baird’s Tapir (Tapirus bairdii) survives in the San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor, a mosaic of fragmented forest habitats that maintain the ecological connectivity between the lowland rain forest ecosystem of Southeastern Nicaragua and Northern Costa Rica with Costa Rican montane forests. This corridor totals more than one million hectares of protected areas in different degrees of conservation. Evidence of tapir presence in the corridor has been observed during the last eight years, but the status of this species in the area remains largely unknown, leading us to conduct a habitat viability assessment based on our knowledge of the area and on information about Baird’s Tapir in similar ecosystems. We used GIS data, measuring seven ecological parameters that allowed us to characterize the availability of habitat for Baird’s Tapir in the San Juan-La Selva Biological Corridor. We estimated the number of tapirs to range from 69 to 208 individuals. Our methods exemplify an inexpensive means to assess Tapir’s habitat viability where there is substantial and reliable georeferenced data about the ecosystems present in the study area.