The lost tapir that wasn't lost at all
How one scientist's 11-year obsession proved everyone wrong about extinction
By Dan Fletcher
Today’s newsletter is one about persistence — the kind that leads a scientist to spend over a decade questioning a single decision, then drive 16,000 kilometers across some of Brazil's most unforgiving terrain to prove that decision wrong.
The story starts in 2012, when Dr. Patrícia Medici found herself in a room full of experts making what felt like an impossible choice. The Brazilian government had asked them to assess the conservation status of the country's large mammals for the National Red List. When it came to the lowland tapir in the Caatinga — Brazil's thorny, semi-arid scrubland that covers nearly a tenth of the country — the data was thin and the news seemed grim.
So they declared it "Regionally Extinct."
For those unfamiliar with tapirs, we're talking about some genuinely extraordinary animals. These "living fossils" have been wandering Earth for 50 million years, making them older than most of the mammals we're familiar with today. Despite their pig-like appearance, they're actually more closely related to horses and rhinos. Here's just a bit of what makes them special:
They sport a short, flexible trunk (called a proboscis) that they use like a hand to grab leaves and fruit
Baby tapirs are born with white spots and stripes that fade as they grow up — nature's own camouflage system
They're skilled swimmers who can walk along riverbeds underwater, using their trunks as snorkels
As "gardeners of the forest," they disperse seeds across vast distances, helping forests regenerate and expand
All four species worldwide are now threatened, with some populations numbering in the hundreds
"Since then, we still continued to think a lot about why we made such an important decision based on so little information," Medici later reflected. That nagging doubt would drive her on an extraordinary quest spanning three expeditions and thousands of miles of dusty roads.
Thanks to FUZZ subscriber Adrian, who's been following tapir research for years and sent along the latest reports from Medici's team, I can tell you how this story ends: the tapir was never actually extinct in the Caatinga at all.
The first expedition in 2023, funded by crowdfunding and dubbed "In Search of the Lost Tapir," covered 10,000 kilometers in 31 days. Medici and her team drove through Minas Gerais, Bahia, and Piauí, chasing down any hint that tapirs had once lived there — or might still be living there. They spent their time interviewing elderly residents, collecting stories passed down through generations.
What they learned was both heartening and sobering. Yes, tapirs had definitely lived throughout the Caatinga, even in its central regions like the Chapada Diamantina mountains. The memories went back 400 years. But hunting, habitat loss, and dwindling water sources had wiped them out from most of their range, leaving only traces on the edges where the Caatinga meets other biomes.
The breakthrough came during their second expedition in 2024. After another 6,000 kilometers and 20 days on the road, this time focusing on western Bahia and the area around Serra das Confusões National Park in Piauí, they found what they were looking for: fresh tapir signs and, crucially, footage from a camera trap.
But the real vindication came in 2025. The third expedition yielded what Medici calls "the most consistent data yet." Her team has now identified at least five distinct tapir populations across Minas Gerais, Bahia, and Piauí — not just wandering individuals, but actual resident populations. They've compiled 65 historical records spanning 400 years and an impressive 265 recent records.
The tapir had never actually disappeared from the Caatinga. It had just become nearly invisible.
"We can definitively state that THE TAPIR IS NOT EXTINCT IN THE CAATINGA," Medici wrote in her latest field update, and you can practically feel the satisfaction radiating from those capital letters.
The discovery is already reshaping official conservation strategies. In April, Medici's team participated in a workshop to revise Brazil's National Red List, where their nearly 30 years of tapir data — including the new Caatinga findings — proved crucial to the assessment.
But perhaps the most intriguing development is what they're doing with flies. In an ingenious twist on environmental DNA research, Medici's team is now extracting tapir DNA from flies that fed on tapir feces. During their March expedition, they collected flies in three Caatinga locations where no visible signs of tapirs were found. "Could the flies know more than we do?" Medici asks. The samples are currently being analyzed, potentially revealing tapir presence in places that seem completely empty to human observers.
It’s a great story. Here's a scientist who could have simply accepted the conventional wisdom — tapirs gone, case closed, move on to the next species. Instead, she let that uncomfortable feeling of making a decision without enough information gnaw at her for over a decade. Then she did something about it.
With confirmed tapir presence, Medici's focus is now shifting to understanding their range, ecology, health, and genetics in this harsh biome. Long-term research will likely begin in 2026, turning a quest to find the "lost" tapir into a mission to protect the survivors that were hiding in plain sight all along.
Every tapir matters, but perhaps especially the survivors clinging to existence in places we thought they'd already vanished from. They represent both resilience and opportunity — proof that nature can persist in the most unlikely corners, if we just keep looking for it.
Thanks to Adrian for sharing his passion for tapirs and keeping me updated on the latest research.
Quick links! 🔗
Scientists have captured the first-ever photograph of Africa's "forgotten antelope" — the Upemba lechwe — in a last-ditch effort to prevent its extinction. During an aerial survey in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, researchers spotted fewer than 10 individuals of this critically endangered subspecies, with Manuel Weber from Upemba National Park managing to snap a quick photo lasting "literally a few seconds." From 22,000 individuals in the early 1970s to fewer than 100 today, the Upemba lechwe has been decimated primarily by hunting, and Weber hopes this photograph will serve as a "rallying cry" to generate awareness and resources for protecting these animals before they disappear entirely.
And finally, a story about a fun ambush: A young Cooper's hawk in New Jersey has proven just how adaptable and intelligent birds of prey can be, using a pedestrian crosswalk signal to launch surprise attacks on unsuspecting birds. Researcher Vladimir Dinets observed the juvenile hawk strategically waiting until cars backed up at the crossing, then using the vehicles as cover to swoop into a nearby yard where sparrows and doves were feeding. The bird, a winter migrant unfamiliar with the neighborhood, demonstrated remarkable cognitive skills by understanding the connection between the crossing signal, traffic patterns, and potential prey — a testament to the surprising intelligence of urban wildlife.
