The mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque), the smallest of the three American tapirs, is the least studied species of the family Tapiridae and is classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Globally Threatened Species. It plays a critical role in the functioning of ecosystems throughout the northern Andes as a seed predator and disperser of a wide diversity of plant species. Despite the ecological importance and conservation status of this species, information about its population ecology and habitat use are limited. Here, we assessed the influence of environmental (i.e., elevation, slope, NDVI) and anthropogenic disturbance, i.e., distance to roads (there is evidence that roads influence the detectability of tapirs, because it can act as barriers) on the occupancy of mountain tapirs. We conducted a camera trapping survey (115 camera-trap stations) during the dry season of 2016 along elevations from 1600 to 3600 m above sea level (m. a. s. l.) at the Tabaconas Namballe National Sanctuary (TNNS) in northern Peru. We detected the mountain tapir 128 times at 48 sites over 11,753 cumulative camera-days. The occupancy of the species was 0.48 and ranged from 0.36 to 0.61, and detectability was 0.12 ranged from 0.09 to 0.15. Occupancy was significantly and positively correlated with distance to roads and negatively with slope of terrain, and detectability was correlated with distance to water sources. We also found that mountain tapirs display predominantly nocturnal habits. Our results provide evidence that mountain tapir habitat use is probably affected by distance to roads. Mountain tapirs are currently sheltered within protected areas; however, increased land-use changes throughout their southern geographical range (especially outside protected areas) challenge their conservation, highlighting the urgent need for practical and effective actions that will ensure their long-term viability, such as conservation corridors among protected areas to ensure connectivity of tapir populations.

中文翻译：

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地形和干扰解释了山貘（Tapirus pinchaque）在其全球最南端的居住情况

山貘（Tapirus pinchaque）是三种美洲貘中最小的一种，是貘科中研究最少的物种，在世界自然保护联盟全球受威胁物种红色名录中被列为濒危物种。它作为多种植物物种的种子捕食者和传播者，在整个安第斯山脉北部的生态系统功能中发挥着关键作用。尽管该物种具有生态重要性和保护状况，但有关其种群生态和栖息地利用的信息有限。在这里，我们评估了环境（即海拔、坡度、NDVI）和人为干扰，即到道路的距离（有证据表明道路会影响貘的可探测性，因为它可以充当障碍）对山地占用的影响貘。我们在 2016 年旱季期间在秘鲁北部的 Tabaconas Namballe 国家保护区 (TNNS) 沿海拔 1600 至 3600 米 (masl) 进行了相机捕获调查（115 个相机捕获站）。我们在 11,753 个累计摄像日内在 48 个地点检测到山貘128 次。物种的占有率为 0.48，范围为 0.36 至 0.61，检测率为 0.12，范围为 0.09 至 0.15。占用率与道路距离呈显着正相关，与地形坡度呈负相关，可探测性与与水源的距离相关。我们还发现山貘主要表现出夜间习性。我们的结果提供证据表明山貘栖息地的使用可能受到与道路距离的影响。山貘目前栖息在保护区内；然而，整个南部地理范围内（尤其是保护区外）土地利用变化的增加对其保护提出了挑战，突出表明迫切需要采取切实有效的行动来确保其长期生存能力，例如保护区之间的保护走廊以确保连通性貘种群。