Baird's Tapir - Predation and Vulnerability

Predation and Vulnerability

According to the IUCN, Baird's tapir is in danger of extinction, and in 1996 it was officially classified as "Vulnerable". Hunting by humans and habitat loss are the two major factors in the species' diminishing numbers. Though in many areas the animal is only hunted by a few humans, any loss of life is a serious blow to the tapir population, especially because their reproductive rate is so slow.

Though in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama, hunting of Baird's tapirs is illegal, but the laws protecting them are often completely unenforced. Furthermore, restrictions against hunting do not address the problem of deforestation. Therefore, many conservationists focus on environmental education and sustainable forestry to try to save Baird's tapir and other rainforest species from extinction.

Attacks on humans are rare and normally in self-defense. In 2006, Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Echandi, the former Costa Rican Minister of Environment and Energy, was attacked and injured by a tapir after he followed it off the trail.

An adult Baird's tapir, being such a massive mammal, has very few natural predators. Only large adult American crocodiles (4 metres / 13 feet or more) and adult jaguars are capable of preying on tapirs, although even in these cases the outcome is unpredictable and, more often than not, in the tapir's favor (as is evident on multiple tapirs documented in Corcovado National Park with large claw marks covering their hides).