The Impact of Roads and Traffic on Tapir Species

Roads are the most widespread man-made feature on Earth, and they are expanding at an unprecedented rate. Although roads are key drivers of economic growth and social integration, this increase in global mobility has consequences, including a wide range of environmental impacts, both during their construction and operation. In the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, for example, road mortality is the main direct cause of wildlife loss. The four IUCN SSC Tapir Specialist Group (TSG) tapir action plans- the Malayan Tapir Action Plan, the Mountain Tapir Action Plan, Baird’s Tapir Action Plan, and the Lowland Tapir Action Plan, list roadkill as an important threat to tapirs. Additionally, the Brazilian Action Plan for Threatened Ungulates mentions roadkill as one of the most severe threats to lowland tapir survival in Brazil. Vehicle collisions with large species such as tapirs can seriously affect human safety, including human victims severely injured or human fatalities.  The lowland tapir is the species with the most roadkill data, experiencing high mortality rates in Brazilian biomes such as the Cerrado, Pantanal, and Atlantic Forest in Brazil. For mountain tapirs, information on vehicle collisions is scarce, which can be explained by the fact that tapir habitat is mountainous, difficult to access, and where road density is still extremely low. Road mortality of Malayan tapirs are highly correlated with plantation development, particularly palm oil and for the countries of occurrence of Baird’s Tapir, such as Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador, the road density is high and road mortality has been recorded more frequently. Recent cost-benefit studies show that investments in road mitigation through properly installed fencing, combined with safe crossings and wildlife viaducts, are likely to pay for themselves in the medium term. Finally, we describe the effectiveness of mitigation measures in providing safe road crossings for tapirs in different countries.