SOUTH AMERICA 405 



level forests from central Colombia to Ecuador and possibly 

 northern Peru. Most of the specimens seem to come from the 

 Andes of Ecuador. Its discoverer, Dr. Roulin, obtained his 

 specimens from the Paramos of Quindiu and Suma-Paz, during 

 his residence at Bogota, and it was met with by Goudot on the 

 peak of Tolima between 1,400 and 4,400 meters, in south- 

 eastern Colombia. P. L. Sclater (1870) quotes a letter from 

 Robert B. White dated from Popayan, Colombia, June 8, 1869, 

 in which he speaks of finding this tapir on the central Cordillera, 

 in the region of the volcano of Purace, adding that "they are 

 very shy, and I have not been able to get near them, but have 

 seen them at a distance of half a mile, with a telescope, bathing 

 themselves in a small lake. I have also seen the skins occa- 

 sionally brought in by the Indians . . . It is never found 

 at a lower elevation than 3,500 metres above sea-level 

 and it exists up to 4,200 metres. These animals are rarely 

 killed, because the skin only sells for" 3 shillings. 



In the Santa Marta region of northern Colombia, there 

 are tapirs in the somewhat isolated Santa Marta Range, but 

 judged from a skull from Dibulla, in that region, the species 

 there is T. terrestris. Farther s\mth, however, in the Depart- 

 ment of Santander, M. A. Carriker, Jr., informs us that tapirs 

 are rather common in the southern part of the area at altitudes 

 from 8,000 to 10,000 feet, and are much hunted by the natives. 

 Owing to clearing of the forests for cultivation, the tapirs are 

 likely in time to become driven out or much depleted in 

 numbers. 



Thomas (1880) mentions that a Mr. Buckley secured a series 

 of 15 specimens of this tapir at Sarayacu, Ecuador, but "un- 

 fortunately before the skins were prepared, a troop of revo- 

 lutionary soldiers put in an appearance and cut off the hoofs of 

 every specimen to make into amulets," which so vexed Mr. 

 Buckley that he abandoned the entire lot! 



Mountain tapirs were first exhibited in the London Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens in 1878, according to Sclater (1878), who probably 

 did not then regard as the same the two youngish ones from 

 Ecuador that Gray in 1872 named enigmaticus and leucogenys. 

 There is a mounted skin and a skeleton from Ecuador in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, and there are two speci- 

 mens in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 taken in the Uanganatis Mountains on the headwaters of the 

 Curaray River, Ecuador, at 14,000 feet, in 1935-36. 



