Tapirs are ancient, solitary forest dwellers facing habitat loss across Asia and the Americas. Their welfare depends on large connected forests and reduced human-wildlife conflict.
Tapirs are among the least studied of the large forest mammals, which has contributed to their welfare being overlooked in conservation planning. Their strict requirement for large, undisturbed forest means that habitat fragmentation not only reduces population sizes but directly compromises the welfare of surviving individuals who must navigate degraded landscapes with reduced food resources and increased human contact risk. Tapirs killed in vehicle collisions or by hunters die traumatically — often slowly from injuries. Supporting large-scale forest protection in tapir range countries addresses both population-level conservation needs and the welfare of the many individual tapirs living in increasingly fragmented habitats.