Has anyody sucessfully hunted tapirs after whistling them in.

We call in capibaras with good succes but never tried a tapir as they do not exist in my country but I will try next time a visit some friends in Paraguay...

L

Here tapir tapir here tapir

Works on kitties

Actually I never hunted one, and think might not ever do...

Whistling any given game is something that sometimes might cause its attention (thus given you the opportunity to try a shot) and sometimes might not, depending on how courious that particular animal might be and in which state of excitemnent / danger it might feel itself ...

Generically speaking, I have whistled red deers quite succesfully (if not evidently alarmed, they usually stop their race to look around to identify that noice) - but as said never hunted tapires...

Whatever you might do, do it carefully since tapires are included in CITES (in Argentina the tapir - Tapirus Terrestris - is in CITES II)

I know that the native indians call the tapirs in by replicating their whistling, but was wondering whether anybody had any experience, I managed to find a soundbite on this website www.hagenbeck.de/tierwelt/haupt2.htm

Just click on Tierstimme: Flachland-Tapir

quote:

Originally posted by Cumbrian:
I know that the native indians call the tapirs in by replicating their whistling (...)

Surely that could happen.... But I think that in an hypothetical attempt you might need to assure two vital conditions: find the right native indian and spend loooooot of time expecting success in one of his need-to-be many trials...

I don't think calling tapirs is hypothetical, Joe Cavanaugh in his book Jungle Hunter, regulary use to hunt tapir in Bolivia and Peru by imitating their whistling. I suppose it is no difference to calling stags in the rut, or indeed roe bucks in the rut, or imitating the call of a dog fox or vixen in the winter when they pair up, or imitating the call of a distressed fox cub in the spring to bring in vixens. Tapirs usually breed all year round so should be susceptible to calls from their own species. Whether the call used is to provoke territorial males or is a distress call I do not know, but I am curious whether anybody on this forum had heard of the technique or indeed witnessed it.

It's very easy to call in a capibara by imitating the male whistle, I think it will be very similar with tapir's males...

For the capibara you use a Coke (or Pepsi,beer,etc)metal top and you flatten it with a hammer, then you fold it at the middle like an empanade (sp?)but without touching both sides, then you use the hammer again and put a nail through both sides and then you take the nail away. So you end with a small hole in each side of the folded up bottle tap.

You put that inside in your mouth and practice. You will be able to do a thin whistling that it's exactly to the capibara's whistling.

Similar noise a giant guinea pig will do.

That's all..I hope my english was enough clear to give you an idea of what you have to do.

L

Last year, Willie 1953 and I hunted the Chaco in Northern Argentina. We came upon tapir tracks on the Bermejo River. I would like to hunt them.
Our fishing guide Luis points to tapir tracks


a caiman near the tracks


Howler monkey in area


tapir photo from Internet

Lorenzo, thanks for that information, I have only ever hunted birds in Argentina but would love to return soon to hunt the various deer and indigenous anmals.

Steve, I really enjoyed your hunt report in the Chaco, I use to hunt ducks a lot on the Parana River in Santa Fe and the guides use to tell me about the hunting in the Chaco, it seemed the further north one went the wilder the country.

Hey, I've been there and got the tee shirt ... About 25 years ago my lady and I hunted in the jungle in Bolivia. At one stage we floated some obscure (to me) river ... it was several hours from where we launched the dugout canoe (hand chopped out from some giant tree)...Many hours after darkness ... the younger of the two guides started whistling ... soon he had several tapirs whistling back from various spots deep in the bush and it seemed to be higher up on hills ... (it was very dark)

We rowed to shore and let Margaret and Jose' off .. and we then rowed into some tall grass where the young guy continued the two way conversation with the approaching tapir ..

Some minutes later we saw the light come on and ... My lady is the only Canadian woman on the block who has shot a tapir .. as far as I know ...

They are delicious and not easy to drag out to a boat ... Trust me on this ... It was an absolutely fascinating experience ....

I am a generous person - but I got one, too !!

Scruffy it sounds like a great hunt, do you have any pictures that you can post?

Yo, Cumbrian,

In those days I took slides. I have written a few books over the years and my first book, ' The Last Jungle Cat' has a story or two and photos of that long ago hunt. If you are interested just pm me and I'll look around for a copy and mail it off to you ... although I am not exactly sure where Cumbria be ???

Is that caiman in the photo legal? I don't doubt the tapir is good eating, but just looking at one and then the caiman, if I had to go with just one as a trophy I think I'd take old Mr. Lizard...

quote:

Originally posted by Shack:
Is that caiman in the photo legal? I don't doubt the tapir is good eating, but just looking at one and then the caiman, if I had to go with just one as a trophy I think I'd take old Mr. Lizard...

I am under the opinion that it currently would be illegal for an American to shoot a caiman in most South American countries. Whether this is true for hunters from other nations, I don't know. Caiman are generally much smaller than NA alligators and much, much smaller than Nile crocs. There are some huge American crocodiles in Central America, but I don't think they can be legally hunted, either. Just like in Kenya, the anti-hunters have used financial loans and bribes to gov'ts to outlaw sport hunting-- to the detriment of the large predators & herbivores, which end up being killed as vermin or bush-meat by the locals, instead of being viewed as an economic bonus when hunters arrive.