Wild & Wondrous - Favorite World Press

The FWP weekly digest of wondrous wildlife happenings
and other interesting items from the natural world

Creatures to meet | Things to learn
Things to do

Lisa S. French

2-minute read

If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to polish your signature dance move (and we know you have one), researchers in Japan and Sweden offer some thought-provoking new insights into the ancient origins of your distinctive locomotive stylings. The integration of movement and sound, resulting in that splendid thing we do, known as dancing, is widespread across human cultures, dating back as far as 1.8 million years. While animals in the wild, including elephants, kangaroos, and rabbits produce drumming and stomping sounds to communicate, and some species of animals in captivity such as sea lions and parrots have been trained to move to a beat, it was believed that homo sapiens were unique in our ability to spontaneously produce rhythmic movements in response to musical sounds.

A recent analysis from Kyoto University exploring the biological foundation of music-induced movement in non-human primates points to a gradually developing connection between motor and auditory areas of the brain over millennia. In a controlled study, chimpanzees voluntarily responded to both random and regular beats with rhythmic swaying, implying a possible evolutionary link to musicality that may have developed from a common ancestor around 6 million years ago. Although male chimpanzees in the wild drum, make sounds with objects, chorus in groups, and display rhythmic movement in response to heavy rainfall, they have not been observed to interact in a synchronous manner with musical sounds. However, the chimpanzees in the Kyoto study did move toward the sound of the beat and engage by swaying, hand-clapping, foot-tapping, and vocalization. Unlike humans who show no gender-related differences in musical ability, consistent with communication hierarchies within their patriarchal societies, male chimpanzees were more likely to get into the swing of things than females.

Researchers at Lund University have come up with an alternative theory, that the roots of our rhythmic behavior, while still evolutionary, may lie closer to home—in our mother’s ability to walk the upright walk. Compared to the irregular gait of non-human primate quadrupeds like the chimpanzee, the footfall of human bipeds is evenly paced at around 120 beats per minute, mimicking universally recognized tempos. Because the consistent sound and vibration of the mother’s footfall is heard and felt by a developing human fetus beginning at about 24 weeks, this is thought to have a strong influence on the formation of musical abilities, more so than the sound of the maternal heartbeat which is similar across primates. The researchers have theorized that the cadence of footfall is encoded into the limbic system of the human fetal brain. This bit of grey matter is primarily responsible for emotion and memory, which is why it is believed we respond positively as newborns and in later life to musical rhythms because they closely resemble the sounds we perceived in the environment of the womb. If you get that “I know this one” feeling when you hear a regularly timed beat, you may have picked it up in the interior maternal soundscape before you were born courtesy of your mother who walked an average of 10,000 equally spaced steps in a typical day of roaming. And if you often feel compelled to get up to get down, you might have mom to thank for that as well.

While chimps appear to have some limited ability to move rhythmically, both studies indicate that humans are still top banana when it comes to synchronizing to a beat; however, further investigation may eventually reveal that we’ll have to make room on the dance floor for our swinging friends.

As a lucky member of the community of living beings who can dance if they want to, here’s hoping you find your idiosyncratic joy-inducing groove in 2020. Beaming out positive vibes of transformative change from Weekly Wondrous for a shiny New Year ahead. Would that not be nice!

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Lisa S. French January 6, 2020

Dear Readers

We’ve had a tree-rific year at Favorite World Press! With your enthusiastic support of our first series release, Frankie and Peaches: Tales of Total Kindness, we’ve planted thousands of trees alongside our dedicated conservation partners at American Forests. By helping us help them, you have made a hopeful investment in a kinder, greener future, for people, for wildlife, and for the planet—and that’s a truly wonderful thing.

We are incredibly grateful that you share our Favorite World vision. Without you, there is no us—so thank you very much for existing! Please keep doing that!

And now dear readers without further ado:

Weekly Wondrous Year in Review

A caroling whale,
some traveling trees,
the busiest beavers,
and most hard-working bees

Squirrels with a strategy,
lemurs that leap,
eels that electrify
and swim in the deep

A fish-chomping grizzly,
some tadpoles that snore,
gardening tapirs,
and flamingos galore

Matching giraffes,
Earth’s favorite Day,
baby turtles that hatched
in Far Rockaway bay

A night pollinator
that works in the dark,
happier humans
because they’ve got park

Recycled birds,
an award-winning tree,
kelp-keeping otters,
more space to roam free

A ground-dwelling parrot,
one rhino, then two,
a bird that builds bowers
in bright shades of blue

African elephants
evolving tusk-free,
Eurasian antelopes
that just want to be

A mini-marsupial,
a fussed-over frog,
proud papa penguins
protecting their sprog

Good news for gorillas,
an Airbee-n-bee,
the most purr-fect postage,
a bird app that’s free

A pine-loving bear cub
eating cones by the bunch,
a leather-lipped camel
chewing cactus for lunch

Shy, scaly pangolins
that sleep in the day,
hard-working scientists
with something to say

A yellow-eyed hoiho
that lives near the sea,
some animal farmers,
and Brazil’s tallest tree

Lovers of nature,
fine people like you,
who make room in their hearts
for Earth’s beautiful view

That’s all folks!

We’ll be back in 2020 with more books, more trees and more featured creatures.

From our Favorite World to yours, however you celebrate, wishing you an absolute abundance of holiday cheer!

XOX!

LSF • WW • FWP

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Lisa S. French December 19, 2019

Towering Trees

At Weekly Wondrous, we believe that every tree is a winner. Because what’s not to like about a carbon-storing, water-purifying, habitat-providing, lovely, leafy planet fixture? However, to clinch official “champion” status, a tree has to possess that special something such as exceptional height, width, or age that makes it stand out in its field—or forest.

In 2019, two statuesque rainforest dwellers made the cut and were added to the official A-list of champion trees for record-breaking height: a 290-foot angelim vermelho (Dinizia excelsa) located in the Paru State Forest in Brazil, and a 339-foot yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana) located in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.

Towering 21 stories above the forest floor, the leviathan angelim vermelho was tracked down deep in the heart of the Brazilian rainforest by indomitable researchers from the Universities of Jequitinhonha and Muscari Valleys in Brazil, and Cambridge in the United Kingdom. Now hailed as the tallest tree in Amazonia, the tropical hardwood is about the same height as the Statue of Liberty, give or take a torch. Common across Guyana and northern Brazil, the average angelim vermelho grows to approximately 160 – 190 feet tall and is typically harvested for its durable timber, which is used for everything from boatbuilding to floorboards to bridges. It’s believed that the recently discovered giant was able to achieve a remarkable 100 feet of additional growth undisturbed as a result of its remote location in the Amazon basin, one of the most biodiverse ecoregions on Earth.

In June, researchers from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Nottingham introduced the world to the tallest tropical tree known to date, the 339-foot yellow meranti, dubbed “Menara” (Malay for “tower”) which soars over the Danum Valley Conservation Area in Borneo. Almost 50 feet taller than its Brazilian rainforest rival and so far, second in height only to famed Hyperion, a majestic 380-foot coast redwood in Redwood National Park in California, the mammoth yellow meranti is also a contender for tallest flowering plant in the world. The endangered tree species can currently be found in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Phillipines as well as Malaysia, although numbers are decreasing due to logging and land-use change.

While we are on the subject of top-notch trees, we would like to extend a little local love to the “Queen’s Giant,” the largest and oldest tree In New York City. The 133-foot tall tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) located in Flushing Queen’s Alley Pond Park is estimated to be approximately 350 years old. Although somewhat of a pipsqueak by Brazil, and Borneo standards, the flowering favorite remains a colossus in our hearts.

If you live in the United States and would like to join the global ranks of intrepid tree-trackers, you can locate, measure, and nominate the most tremendous tree you can find for inclusion in the National Register of Champion Trees through our planting partners at American Forests.

Whether a world champion tree, the biggest on the block, or a beloved backyard beauty, we’re always delighted to welcome another green growing presence to the planet. You can introduce one of your own by planting a tree with Favorite World Press this holiday season or any time of the year. No digging required!

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Lisa S. French December 18, 2019

Saving Saigas

If you were to imagine a cross between Bambi and a snuffleupagus, you might come up with something that looks a lot like the saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica). With its wide doe eyes and large, twin-pipe breathing apparatus, the honey-colored, goat-sized saiga is one of the most whimsical-looking of the spiral-horned antelopes; it is also one of the most threatened animals on Earth. Currently classified as critically endangered, which is the next to last stop on the harrowing road to extinction, the saiga antelope is at very high risk of vanishing from the wild.

Although saigas have roamed the planet since the era of the woolly mammoth, as far back as 2.6 million years, and were abundant across Eastern Europe, Asia, and Alaska throughout the 19th century, their population plummeted from one million in the 1990s to just 60,000 by 2005. Extinct in China for the last five decades, migratory herds of saiga antelopes can now only be found on the vast grassy plains of the Eurasian steppe in remote areas of Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Conservationists working to bring the species back from the brink have faced two major challenges, widespread poaching and climate change-induced vulnerability to viral disease that led to a massive die-off in 2015.

Like an elephant’s tusks and a pangolin’s scales, the translucent amber horns of the male saiga are highly coveted for use in traditional medicine, making the antelope an especially valuable target for poachers. As a consequence of rampant poaching over a fifteen-year period, the reduction in the number of saiga males available for mating in proportion to females led to a significant decrease in the rate of new births, and ultimately, reproductive collapse. Following a decade of strategic conservation efforts and enforcement of anti-poaching legislation, the saiga population had rebounded to 300,000 by late spring of 2015 when hundreds of thousands of females gathered on the steppe of Kazakhstan to give birth. In a widely documented mass mortality event which has now been linked to a rapid increase in temperature and humidity, over a three week period, 200,000 saiga mothers and newborn calves succumbed to a respiratory virus reducing the total population to 103,000, once again leaving the struggling animals teetering on the edge.

And now for some good and hopeful news, because we can always use a bit more of that in general, but especially when it comes to animals on the verge of extinction: saiga conservation groups working in collaboration with the Royal Veterinary College reported in May 2019 that as a result of ongoing anti-poaching work, disease management, and habitat protection the saiga population doubled to approximately 228,000 between 2016 and 2018. And because lowering vulnerability to climate change-related stressors is key to safeguarding endangered species like the saiga, scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum are also exploring whether the antelopes are flexible enough to relocate. If, like their ice-age ancestors, they are able to survive in colder areas outside of their current semi-arid steppe habitat, the risk of another heat-induced viral infection epidemic may be diminished.

Whether racing against the clock to save the saiga, the right whale, or the rhino, researchers, scientists, and NGOs around the world dedicated to the conservation of the 6,127 species listed as critically endangered have their work cut out for them. Rapid and continuing habitat loss, poaching, and environmental degradation, along with newly emerging viral diseases related to climate change make biodiversity conservation an especially complex and challenging problem that requires unique, ground-breaking, and sustainable solutions.

Speaking of conservation solutions, you can learn about some game-changing innovations from the Nature Conservancy and find out what the next generation of MIT scientists are cooking up on the biodiversity front at the Environmental Solutions Initiative. If you are prone to rooting for the underdog, or the under-antelope, as we are at Weekly Wondrous, you can lend your support to the Saiga Conservation Alliance at the Wildlife Conservation Network. And if you’d like to give a conservation scientist a holiday hug of gratitude for helping to protect and preserve the wild and the wondrous, you may do that wherever you happen to find one.

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Lisa S. French December 10, 2019

Splendid Scientists

Since Thanksgiving is just one short day away, we decided to get a head start on the list of splendid people and things to be grateful for here at Favorite World Press: our tree-planting readers, our tree-planting partners, our creative conjurors, our unwavering supporters, and the forthcoming T-Day pie!

At Weekly Wondrous, we are especially thankful for those whose hard work helps fuel our mission—the researchers, the problem solvers—the scientists. Here’s to you:

WW Ode to Scientists

The unrelenting analysts,
the cogitating theorists,
the research fiends, the paper writers,
the curious ones, the bias fighters,
the double-checking data sharers,
the honest information bearers,
the conclusion-drawing recommenders,
the nothing-but-the-truth defenders,
the nature-loving planet keepers,
the make-it-better never sleepers,
the ones who question as a rule,
the scientists—the supercool!

With unbounded gratitude for all that you do.

-LSF-

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Lisa S. French November 27, 2019

Best Bird

It’s bird award season in the southern hemisphere–that special time in late spring when birdwatchers around the world cast their votes online for the annual “it” bird of New Zealand. On November 11, this year’s favored flapper, the endangered yellow-eyed penguin, toddled past its top rival, the charismatic kākāpō, to be crowned 2019 Bird of the Year by New Zealand’s leading independent conservation organization Forest & Bird.

The yellow-eyed penguin, also known as the hoiho, which is Maori for noise shouter, is the world’s oldest and rarest penguin species—only 225 pairs of the seabird remain on New Zealand’s mainland. With its distinctive yellow peepers, pink feet, and slate-blue back and flippers, the hoiho is an unmistakable presence in the island nation’s coastal forests. Generally a solitary, quiet bird, the yellow-eyed penguin earned its Maori moniker due to the high-pitched braying sound it makes in nesting areas.

The Bird of the Year competition was launched in 2005 to raise awareness of New Zealand’s many remarkable native bird species and the threats to their survival. Currently, 80% of New Zealand’s birds are in trouble, and one out of three are at risk of extinction, including the hoiho and the kākāpō. You can learn more about all of the 2019 Forest & Bird contestants and their conservation status here.

If viewing all of the feathered finery down-under has you suffering from a bout of birdwatcher’s envy, here are some resources, tips, and upcoming events for budding and full-blown birders up-top:

You can get facts, photos, and vocalizations for more than 600 North American bird species at Cornell Labs ultimate online ornithology resource, allaboutbirds.org.

If you’d like to get a handle on how birds in your neck of the woods will be impacted by climate change under different warming scenarios, Audubon scientists have created an amazing app for that: Survival By Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink. Just type in your U.S. postal code to find out which birds in your county will be affected by increasing global temperatures and how you can help support the Audubon mission.

From December 14 through January 5, you can put your bird-by-bird watching to really good use by participating in the 120^th annual Christmas Bird Count, helping to collect data that will be used to analyze the health of bird populations across the Americas.

And because winter really is coming, here’s a zero-effort habitat gardening tip: rather than cutting back any perennials on your patch, go wild and leave seed-bearing plant tops intact as a snack station to attract winter bird fly-bys. Not tidy perhaps, but tasty, and tasty rules when it comes to keeping the feathered ones in full chirp mode.

Whether you are slogging through snow in the north or celebrating spring in the south, wherever you walk through the beauty of the world, remember to keep an ear out for the winged wonders. That’s a free Earth music download—and it’s good for you!

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Lisa S. French November 21, 2019

Pouched Pademelons

If you’ve never heard of the pademelon, you are not alone. The medium-sized marsupial hopped right under our radar as well. We like to think we’re fairly species-savvy, so when we came across this featured creature courtesy of First Dog on the Moon, initially we thought, well, he’s just making that one up because he’s a cartoon dog, and that’s what they do. As it turns out, while the pademelon (Thylogale) may sound like some newfangled, furry fruit hybrid, it’s actually a long-footed, short-forelimbed, pouched member of the Macropodidae family native to the dense coastal rainforests of Australia and New Guinea.

One of approximately 250 species of Australian marsupials, the pademelon closely resembles its larger cousins, the kangaroo, and wallaby and is also related to quokkas, tree kangaroos, and wallaroos. There are seven distinct pademelon species, ranging in size from about 17 to 20 inches and weighing between 8 and 26 pounds, with grey to dark brown coloration and varied reddish markings. Pademelons are primarily nocturnal herbivores preferring to rest and forage in the safety of dense forest undergrowth during the day, emerging in the evening to feed on leaves, shoots, berries, and ferns, typically not straying far from the forest’s edge.

In contrast to egg-laying mammals (monotremes) like the platypus and spiny anteater, or placental mammals (eutherians) like dingoes and bats which give birth to well-developed offspring, marsupial mammals complete their development in a special maternal pouch following a short gestation period. After just thirty days in the womb, pademelon young are born blind and hairless but with functional forelimbs and mouth, which enable them to crawl into the pouch and attach to the mother to obtain milk. Newborn pademelons, called joeys like their kangaroo cousins, remain inside the pouch for approximately 200 days before being weaned at six to eight months and officially entering the world as independent hoppers.

So why pouches? While some theories suggest that both egg-laying and pouch-percolating mammals represent progressive steps in the evolution toward the eutherian stage of producing well-developed young, researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) offer an alternative explanation: that the marsupial’s unique reproductive ability is not an evolutionary step but instead an advantageous adaptation in response to uncertain and adverse environmental conditions, which has helped them to adjust to the climate of the driest inhabited continent in the world. The ANU scientists believe that the marsupial pouch may play a critical role in the survival of the species by providing developing young with an anti-bacterial, temperature-controlled environment, as well as protection from predators while their mothers forage for food.

Although the pouched ones are more plentiful in Australia than in any other place on the planet and the continent’s dominant species, many marsupials are on the decline due to habitat loss, and impacts of global heating, including bushfires. Changes in the distribution of food, water, and shelter in Australia’s fifteen biodiversity hotspots as a result of reduced rainfall and increased drought frequency will continue to threaten their survival. Currently, four of seven species of pademelon are listed as endangered or vulnerable, as are other little known marsupials including the bilby, bettong, and potoroo.

If you would like to read a special WWF Earth Hour report on how a warming world will affect unique Australian wildlife like the pademelon, you can check it out here.

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Lisa S. French November 12, 2019

Exceptionally Eel-ectric

Compared to many of the creatures featured on Weekly Wondrous, the electric eel (Electrophorus electricus) scores relatively low on the cuddlesome quotient, however, what the high-voltage South American river dweller lacks in animal magnetism, it makes up for in shock value. And the most shocking eel of them all, the new species Electrophorus voltai, was discovered this fall by scientists at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

But before we get to that electrifying story, perhaps you are wondering, “What are eels, anyway? Reptiles? Amphibians? Fish? Amphishians?” Strictly speaking, electric eels are not true eels but a species of electric fish—long, blade-shaped knifefish to be exact, and more closely related to carp and catfish than eels. The 800-plus species of true eels primarily live in saltwater, while electric eels can only be found in the murky freshwater habitats of the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. It was there, in the highland waters of the Brazilian Shield, that the approximately 8-foot long, 860-volt-producing Electrophorus voltai was identified—the strongest living bioelectricity generator known to date. To put that impressive eel power into perspective, the human body is only capable of producing and transmitting between 10 and 100 millionths of one volt over a distance of approximately one-millionth of a meter, a fact for which those of us who travel by crowded subway are quite grateful.

Like all species of electric eels, the E. voltai produces its record-breaking current through the stimulation of thousands of synchronized stacked cells called electrocytes in three pairs of electric organs that take up 80% of the length of its body. The Smithsonian researchers theorize that the 30% increase in electricity-generating potential from the highest previously recorded E. electricus measurement of 650 volts may be an adaptation to the reduced conductivity of the waters where the E. voltai species began its evolution about 7.1 million years ago.

Electric eels make full use of their innate ability to self-generate jolts, utilizing their piscine electro-pulses for eel-to-eel communication, navigation, self-defense, and to locate and stun small fish and invertebrate prey. The objects of the carnivorous fish’s shocking attentions are captured through a highly effective two-step strategy, which researchers at Vanderbilt University have compared to a type of remote control. First, the eel transmits an electric pulse, which causes whole-body contractions in its prey, revealing its location, then a second shock is administered to immobilize the target for ease of swallowing.

In case you are curious as to how eels manage to avoid electrocuting themselves when they get down to their meal-zapping business, one hypothesis is that the amount of the electricity flow is small in proportion to the eel’s body but significant to the size of its prey, and of very short duration (about two milliseconds). In addition, a large percentage of the current dissipates into the water, further reducing its impact on the eel’s critical organs.

Studying and understanding how eels generate and transmit electricity has inspired all manner of technological and medical innovations that benefit humankind, ranging from the first electric battery in 1799 to the ongoing development of soft robots, cardiac pacemakers, and artificial organs. While an effort has been made to determine what it would take to run a Tesla Model 3 on eel power for one hour, the estimated requirement of 7,200 eels in 144,000 gallons of water indicates that particular research endeavor to be a non-starter for both the Tesla and the eels.

Two hundred and fifty years after the discovery of the first electric eel species in South America, the recent identification of the E. voltai in the same region is yet another compelling testament to the extreme importance of protecting and maintaining biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon. Given that approximately 85% of our planet’s flora and fauna remain to be discovered, it’s clear that preserving wild spaces is critical to the continued study of the living world. As biologist and naturalist E.O. Wilson writes in The Diversity of Species, “We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.”

Full disclosure: While eels are clearly some of the most remarkable creatures on Earth and can be strikingly beautiful, we empathize if you are somewhat eel-averse as we confess to hyperventilating a bit while researching this one. However, since getting fish-zapped outside of the Amazon is a low probability event, we can rest easy and simply file these slippery fellows under “admire from afar.”

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Lisa S. French October 31, 2019

Kelp Keepers

Widely admired for its conspicuous cuteness, the sea otter is proving to be far more than just another appealingly furry face. Research into this keystone species’ role in maintaining carbon-storing macroalgae, commonly known as kelp, indicates that the bewhiskered marine mammals may be important allies in the battle against climate change. One of 13 otter species, and the largest member of the weasel family, sea otters can be found floating about in coastal waters in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the Russian Federation. As their name suggests, sea otters spend the majority of their lives in the ocean, preferring to feed, sleep, and raise their pups in close proximity to kelp, which they use as cover from predators and to anchor themselves and their young when resting.

Equivalent to an underwater rainforest, densely layered kelps are an integral component of healthy marine ecosystems, providing food and shelter for myriad species including fish, shellfish, seabirds, harbor seals, and sea lions. In addition to functioning as critical habitat, recent analysis suggests that kelp forests also have immense potential for permanently storing large amounts of carbon dioxide—up to a whopping 634 million tons per year, an amount greater than the annual emissions of Australia.

One of the reasons that kelp is an especially effective sequester of carbon is because it grows quite rapidly, as much as two feet per day, attaching to undersea rocks with root-like structures called holdfasts. Unfortunately, kelp’s natural nemesis, the sea urchin, is particularly fond of feasting on holdfasts, causing the macroalgae to detach from rock surfaces, drift, and die. Left unchecked, the spiny invertebrates can form hungry herds large enough to decimate undersea forests. And that’s where the sea otter comes in—alongside crabs, mussels, and clams, sea urchins happen to be a favorite food of the voracious shellfishionados. By keeping sea urchin populations under control, otters help to ensure kelp’s survival. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have estimated that the presence of otters in a coastal habitat increased the sequestration capacity of kelp forests by 4.4 to 8.7 megatons—and they support this valuable ecosystem service every day, absolutely free of charge—give or take a sea urchin or two.

When sea otters were hunted for their fur to near extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries, coastal kelp forests and many of the creatures that relied upon them for survival all but vanished. Effectively eliminating the sea otter from its ecological niche had profoundly detrimental cascade effects on other species in its marine community. Although still currently classified as endangered, over the past century, as a result of dedicated conservation efforts, Pacific otter populations have rebounded from a low of several thousand to approximately 148,000 across Canada, Alaska, Washington, and California. And, as the kelp keepers have returned to their historic range, so have the undersea forests and their inhabitants.

As our knowledge of the interdependence of living things continues to evolve, and we learn more about how mutually beneficial relationships between species like sea otters and kelp can help to maintain biodiversity and contribute to ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, history serves to remind us that in nature, as in life, sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.

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Lisa S. French October 16, 2019

Tree-Planting Tapirs

If the Brazilian tapir’s eye-catching ensemble of creature features brings to mind ancient beasts, that’s because the shy, primarily nocturnal South American megafauna is one of the oldest species of large mammal remaining on Earth. The origins of this floppy-nosed, bristly-maned, odd-toed ungulate date back approximately 35 million years. For the ungulate-uninitiated, tapirs are Perissodactyls, hooved herbivores who like their closest relatives horses and rhinoceros, possess an odd number of toes. The Brazilian, or lowland, tapir is one of four widely recognized species of tapir native to the forests, grasslands, and mountains of Central and South America and Southeast Asia.

Measuring five to eight feet long and weighing between 300 and 700 pounds, the Brazilian tapir maintains its impressive bulk by consuming up to an equally impressive 85 pounds worth of shoots, leaves, branches, and fruit a day. As it turns out, the tapir’s hearty appetite for seed-bearing plants plays an important role in restoring degraded rainforests. According to researchers at Ohio State University, 80 percent of trees in the Amazon are dependent upon animals for seed dispersal. One of the primary “gardeners of the rainforest” tapirs ingest and expel a large variety of seeds that have future tree potential. Results of a recent study carried out by scientists at the Amazon Environmental Research Institute in Mato Grosso, Brazil, found that 99 percent of 130,000 seeds passed through a tapir’s digestive systems intact. Seeds that survive the digestive process are more likely to germinate. And here’s where it gets more ‘oh, wow’ interesting: the Mato Grosso study suggests that tapirs may prefer to browse and graze in degraded plots of land rather than in unspoiled forest. When sunlight hits the earth as a result of tree canopy loss in burnt or degraded areas, it forces up and reveals tender green shoots from the forest floor that are attractive to tapirs. The tapirs observed in the study spent about twice as much time feeding in degraded plots resulting in more seed “deposits” in areas in need of reforestation.

In the Amazon, wildlife depend upon healthy forest systems, and as the Ohio State and Mato Grosso research indicates, healthy forest systems depend upon wildlife. The Brazilian tapir’s natural capacity to contribute to tree planting can be an important factor in helping to regenerate carbon-storing, rainforest habitat. That is why protecting an umbrella species like the tapir also serves to protect other animals in its ecosystem.

Despite their aptitude for seed dispersal, Brazilian tapirs alone can’t compensate for elevated rates of Amazon deforestation. In addition, as a result of rapid habitat loss due to wildfires and ongoing land-use change, as well as illegal hunting, populations of Brazilian tapirs are decreasing and currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. The good news is you can help keep the hooved horticulturalists of Central and South America in their gardening groove by supporting the tapir research of Nai Conservation and the conservation action plans of the Tapir Specialist Group.

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Lisa S. French October 2, 2019