Joya Grande (Honduras) (AFP)
"Almendra", a baby tapir receives the bottle in a zoological park of Joya Grande. This vast area of northern Honduras, confiscated five years ago by drug traffickers, is now part of a program to protect this endangered species.
Located in the mountains, 150 km from Tegucigalpa, the park is home to 500 animals of 48 different species on some 220 hectares. Franck and Francis, Almendra's parents (Almond in French), as well as seven other tapirs share 12 hectares.
Mammals - Tapirus bairdii - slow-gait and dark-skinned pork species, four species of which originate from Latin America, benefit from a breeding program.
The park was confiscated in 2013 from the cartel "Los Cachiros", whose members pretended to be businessmen and finally went to the United States after being unmasked by the US federal drug agency ( DEA).
The estate, which was intended to be a copy of Pablo Escobar's hacienda (1949-1993), is located in a difficult area near the town of Santa Cruz de Yojoa. Like the Colombian trafficker, the cartel received its guests there.
After the seizure, the government sold it in concession in April 2014 to the company Arca de Noé, responsible for promoting the place as a tourist destination. Her administrator, Maria Diaz, a veterinarian, decided to make it a breeding ground for Central American tapir.
The program can already rejoice at the birth of six small tapirs, all registered in a world register. Almendra is the last born, having been born in December.
"The idea is to breed the animals to help conserve the species," said Maria Diaz, who hopes to make a release "under control" in a large area where it would be possible to prevent human predation.
The tapir, the largest mammal in Central America that can weigh up to 600 kilos, has been listed by Honduras as endangered since 2008.
In addition to the destruction of their habitat, tapirs suffer from a very low reproductive rate: females are not sexually mature before the age of two and the gestation period is 14 months.
Very sociable, the tapir was also much hunted for its meat.
© 2019 AFP