New tapir species found

Adam Khor

http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-tapirus-kabomani-new-species-tapir-01625.html

Hollzy

It will be interesting to see what it's conservation status will be. Realistically vulnerable is the best it can be. They haven't seen a juvenile yet.

This species was found in the same region where Leopardus guttulus was discovered recently.
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-leopardus-guttulus-new-species-wild-cat-brazil-01579.html

steddyeddy

Actually this was known to the local peoples for hundreds of years. It was first researched by a cryptozoologist/paleontologist that was dismissed for years. The sightings of the locals was also dismissed for years. They were embarrassingly told that they were mistaken in what they had seen. Hopefully this disturbing trend of skeptics dismissing sightings out of hand will stop after this discovery.

Here's a quote from the chap who has been actually researching this creature for years

""[Indigenous people] traditionally reported seeing what they called 'a different kind of anta [tapir in Portuguese].' However, the scientific community has never paid much attention to the fact, stating that it was always the same Tapirus terrestris," explains lead author Mario Cozzuol, the paleontologist who first started investigating the new species ten years ago. "They did not give value to local knowledge and thought the locals were wrong. Knowledge of the local community needs to be taken into account and that's what we did in our study, which culminated in the discovery of a new species to science.""

Adam Khor

Very interesting, I did not know this tapir was already known by the locals although it makes a lot of sense... same happened with the larger peccary species found not so long ago, and with more famous creatures such as the okapi...

Maybe we shouldn´t dismiss the stories about undiscovered big cats in the deep Amazon either?