New species of Tapir discovered!

Exciting news has been revealed this week regarding the discovery of a new species of Tapir in Brazil and Colombia! Published by the Journal of Mammology, scientists say that this is the biggest zoological discovery of the 21st century and the first species of Tapir discovered since 1865.

The newly discovered species, Tapirus kabomani, has apparently been known to the indigenous tribes of South America for many years and, although reports were made of this "different kind" of Tapir, scientists disregarded the information saying that the indigenous people must have been wrong.
The Kabomani tapir, named so after the Paumari word for tapir, is closely related to the Brazilian tapir however genetic research suggests that the the two species separated from one another around 300,000 years ago. The Kabomani tapir is much smaller than any other tapir and sports much darker hair. Being the smallest of the five species, conservationists are likely to name this new species the Pygmy or Dwarf tapir.   

Photo credit: Fabrico R. Santos - A female (left) and male (right)
 Kabomani tapir caught on a camera trap.

Tapirs first appeared around 50 million years ago in North America and eventually migrated to Asia, South America and even Europe. Unfortunately many species died out leaving us with the five species known today; four found in Central and South America and one in Asia. All five are listed as threatened with extinction due to over-hunting and human pressures on their environments such as habitat destruction.
 As megafauna, their existence is highly important for the maintenance of the ecosystems in which they live and they also play an important role in many indigenous tribes, both as food and in mythologies.  Sadly, due their scarce numbers, the Kabomani tapir is likely to become more threatened than the other species. The area in which they are found, in the southwest Amazon, is also facing huge road-building projects and increasing rates of deforestation therefore further threatening them. 

It is now down to conservationists to confirm their numbers and distributional range and put in place efforts to ensure their conservation status is managed effectively.