Tapirs are South America's largest native land mammals and ancient seed dispersers whose welfare is threatened by habitat fragmentation, road mortality, and hunting that is destabilizing forest ecosystems.
Tapir welfare in fragmented landscapes involves the stress of moving between habitat patches through human-dominated areas where road mortality and hunting risk are elevated. Tapirs are prey to jaguars in intact habitats but must also navigate vehicles, hunting dogs, and farmers in degraded landscapes. Each road crossing is a welfare-significant risk event for an animal that evolved in roadless forest. Wildlife corridors and crossing infrastructure directly reduce this risk. The welfare of individual tapirs and the health of the forest ecosystems they maintain are inseparable - protecting tapirs protects the seed dispersal that regenerates forests.