The South American tapir, a mammal on the verge of being saved

Imagine for a moment what the Amazonian forest would look like if the tapir was completely eradicated. How would this immense tropical rainforest evolve were this peaceful herbivore - and one the public often knows little about - no longer to exist there? Even though you do not often come across them as you're walking through the forest, this placid mammal nevertheless plays a key role in the ecology of forests in French Guiana. The forest garden A study carried out in Central America which totally excluded tapirs from the observation zone throws light on how this species plays an important role in shaping the forest. It is known that the tapir plays an important role packing down the soil and spreading the seeds of some species. The process used was simple: fences were set up which only kept the tapir out, the largest land mammal in South America. These investigations showed that there was a sharp drop in the number of plant species in the zone from which the tapirs were excluded. The structure of the zone was altered since the undergrowth was no longer maintained by the tapir repeatedly passing through it and trampling the soil. The dynamics of the forest underwent consequences due to the disappearance of an essential link in its proper functioning, and the forest under study soon bore the signs of this, right down to the way it was structured. How can we account for the fact that the drop in the number of tapirs in our ......