Dr Ninon Meyer

The ¿Compassionate Conservation¿ movement is gaining momentum through its promotion of ¿ethical¿ conservation practices based on self-proclaimed principles of ¿first-do-no-harm¿ and ¿individuals matter¿. We argue that the tenets of ¿Compassionate Conservation¿ are ideological - that is, they are not scientifically proven to improve conservation outcomes, yet are critical of the current methods that do. In this paper we envision a future with ¿Compassionate Conservation¿ and predict how this might affect global biodiversity conservation. Taken literally, ¿Compassionate Conservation¿ will deny current conservation practices such as captive breeding, introduced species control, biocontrol, conservation fencing, translocation, contraception, disease control and genetic introgression. Five mainstream conservation practices are used to illustrate the far-reaching and dire consequences for global biodiversity if governed by ¿Compassionate Conservation¿. We acknowledge the important role of animal welfare science in conservation practices but argue that ¿Compassionate Conservation¿ aligns more closely with animal liberation principles protecting individuals over populations. Ultimately we fear that a world of ¿Compassionate Conservation¿ could stymie the global conservation efforts required to meet international biodiversity targets derived from evidenced based practice, such as the Aichi targets developed by the Convention on Biological Diversity and adopted by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the United Nations.

Baird¿s tapir is the largest Neotropical tapir species, and it is considered Endangered by the IUCN. The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR) is the largest protected tropical forest in Mexico. The CBR is at the heart of the Maya Forest, a tri-national forest located in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize that is the largest tropical forest outside the Amazon River basin. Free-standing water in the CBR occurs in only a few ephemeral ponds. These ponds are rare in the landscape, with a mean density of one pond in every 10 km2, and with an average distance among ponds of 3 km. Only some of these ponds have free-standing water in every year. A decreasing trend in water availability from these ponds was detected from 2008 to 2018. Our present objective was to document population of the tapirs during these 11 years, and reveal any relationship to the pattern of water availability. Using the technique of photo-trapping, we monitored from 9 to 15 ponds over a period of 8 years (a total of more than 18,000 camera-days) during the 11-year period. Results showed that although the population remained relatively stable, the index of relative abundance indicated a slight decrease in population abundance and in some sites seemed at least superficially associated with decreasing water availability. Such long-term population studies are becoming more important for estimating the impacts of possible changes and for predicting the future of populations. In turn, they assist the conservation of endangered and sensitive species such as Baird¿s tapir.

The Baird¿s tapir (Tapirella bairdii) is an endangered species throughout its distribution area, however many aspects of its biology and ecology have been poorly studied, due to its evasive behavior and low densities. The goal of this study was to evaluate the activity patterns of T. bairdii, a large ungulate species from the Neotropics, in relation to moon phases in two sites with different degree of human perturbation: the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR) and the Nuevo Becal (NB) community. We monitored twenty waterbodies in each site for 18 months using camera traps. The photographic capture rate (CR) and the corresponding moon phases for both sites were recorded. The CR of T. bairdii was 0.054 in NB and 0.029 in CBR. T. bairdii was more active at night and dawn-twilight periods. In general, T. bairdii showed major activity during the dark moon phases but the differences with the light phases were not statistically significant. However, we found a trend of tapirs to be more active in dark nights and in the darkest hours in NB than CBR. The apparent preferences for dark nights in NB could be caused by the perturbation caused by human activities at site, which may have influenced the behavior of the tapir that avoid moving out in periods of abundant light in disturbed sites. More research is needed to confirm this finding.

Compassionate conservation focuses on 4 tenets: first, do no harm; individuals matter; inclusivity of individual animals; and peaceful coexistence between humans and animals. Recently, compassionate conservation has been promoted as an alternative to conventional conservation philosophy. We believe examples presented by compassionate conservationists are deliberately or arbitrarily chosen to focus on mammals; inherently not compassionate; and offer ineffective conservation solutions. Compassionate conservation arbitrarily focuses on charismatic species, notably large predators and megaherbivores. The philosophy is not compassionate when it leaves invasive predators in the environment to cause harm to vastly more individuals of native species or uses the fear of harm by apex predators to terrorize mesopredators. Hindering the control of exotic species (megafauna, predators) in situ will not improve the conservation condition of the majority of biodiversity. The positions taken by so-called compassionate conservationists on particular species and on conservation actions could be extended to hinder other forms of conservation, including translocations, conservation fencing, and fertility control. Animal welfare is incredibly important to conservation, but ironically compassionate conservation does not offer the best welfare outcomes to animals and is often ineffective in achieving conservation goals. Consequently, compassionate conservation may threaten public and governmental support for conservation because of the limited understanding of conservation problems by the general public.

Ungulates play an essential role in terrestrial ecosystems, but suffer from hunting and habitat degradation which often results in their decline. Panama harbors five species of ungulate and is an important portion of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, but its forest habitat and its fauna are currently threatened. Protected areas have been designated to preserve the biodiversity, but studies evaluating their effectiveness in maintaining ungulates are lacking in Panama. In this study we used camera-trapping surveys to determine the occurrence and abundance of the ungulate species in 13 protected areas across Panama. There were large differences in the ungulate communities among the sites we surveyed. Some sites were impoverished with just one ungulate species recorded while just a single site harbored all five species. The white-lipped peccary was the rarest species and the collared peccaries the most common, captured in all the sites. Moreover, we found large variation in ungulate abundance across the sites. Our results indicate that few protected areas in Panama effectively maintain the entire assemblage of ungulate species.