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How time races by! It's been a full year since we posted to the World Tapir Day blog. Events in the world give pause for thought - increasingly dire predictions for the climate in the coming decades and the lack of time to radically change human behaviour, a shift towards the political right in some countries that has led to the removal of environmental protections and increased destruction, and even larger demands on resources as populations continue to grow and developing countries' standard of living increase. Whilst the direction of the world continues to look bleak, there are some glimmers of hope. A growing number of people - especially the younger generations - are starting to agitate against the climate inaction, there is increased recognition that life on this planet cannot continue how it is if humanity does not change direction, and the environment will collapse without significant intervention - and with it, human society. Whether matters change quickly enough remain to be seen, but there is hope. In our little patch of the global conservation story - awareness raising for the four extant species of tapirs - increased recognition of the importance tapirs play in their habitats is very pleasing to see. A widely reported recent study highlighted the importance of tapirs in helping degraded rainforests recover. By spending much longer in degraded areas than in pristine rainforest, tapirs' role as seed dispersers - through defecating them - more seeds are therefore distributed. In addition, by being defecated in areas with less tree coverage, more seeds germinate. We've been saying it since the first World Tapir Day in 2008 - that protecting tapirs helps protect the environment and contributes towards reducing the impact of climate change. The study's authors agree with us - from the linked report:
Protecting species and their habitats is only one piece of the climate change battle - but it's an important one. It's one with which we can all assist. Through our choices as consumers, we can:
On other topics, whilst we may not have an especially active website, our social media accounts are far more active: On these sites you will find a daily stream of tapir news, other relevant content, and many photos of tapir calves - yes, we know that some people are into tapirs only because of the baby tapirs! At this juncture, I give my utmost thanks and appreciation to Sarah C. who manages our Facebook page and has recently taken on the Instagram feed. She has been doing so for approaching a decade, and do so tirelessly and with great enjoyment, such is her passion for tapirs. Without her commitment, World Tapir Day would have fallen into a dark hole many years ago. Anthony.
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It's hard to believe that World Tapir Day is about to be celebrated for the eleventh time. What started out as a random thought and a post to a tapir group on Google Groups (now sadly long-since deleted) in late January 2008, WTD has become an event that is celebrated around the world every year, and has hopefully contributed to the increased awareness of tapirs and the threats that they face.
WTD was always meant to develop a life of its own. It was never meant to be a centrally-controlled event, but rather develop organically as more people and organisations became aware of its existence and adopted it as their own. There have been many highlights over the years, about which we had no forewarning. Discovering the countries in which events have taken place (25 at the last count), and the media coverage that WTD has received is a real source of enjoyment each year. The most important aspect to WTD has been spreading the word about tapirs. Maybe tapirs would have received more coverage anyway, but I'd like to think that WTD has helped to increase their profile at least a little, and provided a focus for others' activities. It's hard to come up with a short of highlights, but here are a few from the first ten years of WTD:
WTD has also raised funds for the World Land Trust and Rainforest Trust, and provided inspiration for others to also raise funds for both organisations, as well as other organisations. Looking back, I feel it's fair to say that the initial concept of WTD has been met, and it continues to grow and receive more coverage. Here's to the next ten years of World Tapir Day and spreading the word about how wonderful tapirs are.  As World Tapir Day approaches for 2018, we remember Suzanne Davenport, who passed away suddenly on 10 November 2017. Suzanne was a longtime supporter of WTD, and probably the most active of supporters worldwide. She brought flair along with her passion to her promotional and fundraising activities. She first contacted WTD in 2011 to let us know about her busking activities in the New York subway with her group The Violin Femmes, and each subsequent year became more prolific in envisaging new ways to increase the profile of tapir conservation and how to fund it. Her passion for tapirs stemmed from much earlier - from first seeing them at the Wilhelma Zoo in her native Germany in the early 1990s. Last year she was excited to learn that the zoo was just about to host its first tapirs for some years. In 2017, Suzanne organised the second "Tapir Aid" concert in a bar in New York, at which tapir-themed songs were played, raffles were held, and t-shirts were sold. Well over US$6,000 was raised to support Rainforest Trust projects in Peru and Tapir Specialist Group (TSG) activities. In 2016, Suzanne raised in excess of US$4,000 to protect tapir habitat in Sumatra, Indonesia. As soon as WTD 2017 was over, she was starting to explore new ideas for 2018, and was excited about each new concept she imagined, and shared them with excitement and passion. Her passing came as a shock to the people that she was looking forward to meeting at the seventh International Tapir Symposium in November 2017 in Houston. She was looking forward to meeting the people who had supported her fundraising activities over the years, as well as the tapir researchers her activities had helped to fund. She was both excited and nervous about having a fifteen-minute slot to talk about her fundraising activities, and to motivate them to follow her lead and create activities around the world to help protect tapirs. To celebrate the tenth anniversary of World Tapir Day, Suzanne was working on ideas to expand her activities to Germany through friends in Berlin, and involving bars and breweries in the United States and Germany for fundraising for tapir-related conservation causes. In the weeks before her passing, she and I were in regular contact about how WTD could be promoted more effectively, and how she could be an even more prolific fundraiser.
One of the challenges that we - "we" being the small group of WTD volunteers - faces is deciding what we communicate with you, our fellow tapir fans, about tapirs. It's no secret that our most popular posts throughout the year generally involve a video or series of photos of a newly born tapir. And that's no surprise, let's be honest - who doesn't like a baby tapir, or a video of a tapir being tickled and groomed? Sometimes a post on 27 April, World Tapir Day, attracts more publicity than we'd ever dreamed of in WTD's first year in 2008.  So much pressure for such a little tapir. It's hard being so sweet, and we feel the pressure at times too (even if not for the same reasons). Every now and again, we post a link to an article about issues that pose serious threats to the longterm survival of all four extant tapir species (not to mention to individual tapirs). Two recent confronting examples are this post from the Malaysian Nature Society and another from Patricia Medici, President of the Tapir Specialist Group (NOTE: the links are confronting and contain disturbing reports about tapirs). When we share such reports, we do so in the knowledge that some readers will find the reports upsetting - as do we.
We share them with the best of intentions. We are firmly of the view that, regardless of the how confronting the reports and accompanying images may be, it is important that such information is shared. Part of our passion for tapirs is also about raising awareness of the threats that they face, and this includes reports that we wish didn't have to exist. But we know that not every supporter of WTD feels the same, and we've come in for criticism after some of some our posts on our Facebook and Twitter pages. We acknowledge this criticism and do take it to heart. It isn't as tapirs are the only species that face similar issues. If you read news about rhinoceros conservation, the horrendous reports of poaching seem to be the predominant theme, and it can be difficult to find anything positive amongst the massive losses every year. But World Tapir Day isn't just about what we think is important. The strength of WTD is the sense of community that has developed to support WTD's goals, not to mention share our love of tapirs. Part of the responsibility that we feel towards you is knowing how you feel about this topic. So please tell us below: should we continue to post the occasional distressing report, or should we only focus on the positive side? The 2016 edition of World Tapir Day has been. Once again, we greatly appreciate to the people and organisations who made World Tapir Day so successful in 2016. Without your efforts and engagement WTD would not be able to exist, and raise awareness of tapirs and the threats that they face. Events took place on five continents - these are a few of the many highlights from around the world:
There was also some great media coverage, including in the New Straits Times in Malaysia, the Telegraph in the United Kingdom, and on the Nine Network's website and nightly news in Australia.
We are so grateful to the people and organisations who made World Tapir Day so successful in 2015. Without your efforts and engagement there is no way that WTD could have grown to the level that it has.
 If you didn't know your tapirs beforehand, there are no excuses now! 2015 World Tapir Day events - a summary (links to be added)
 Another 27 April is here, which means that it's now World Tapir Day - the eighth WTD since its inception in 2008. World Tapir Day is being celebrated at events in at least eleven countries in 2015. Ten Japanese zoos have hosted events to mark the occasion, as have zoos in other Asian countries, and across Europe, North America and Australia. Particularly special is always the World Tapir Day celebration in Belize that coincides with the country's National Tapir Day at the Belize Zoo. There will be other events happening, some of which we'll learn about only after the fact. Our Facebook page has the full list of events on it. In Malaysia, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, PERHILITAN, is running a campaign to draw attention to the problem of tapirs being killed on the country's highways:  My personal highlight this year has been this wonderful infographic produced by Peppermint Narwhal Creative:  Happy World Tapir Day everybody! We hope you are having a wonderful day.
-- Anthony. |
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