Webinar: Can Tapirs Restore Amazon Rainforest?

Presented by Dave McGlinchey, Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC)'s Chief of External Affairs. Introductory remarks by Heather Goldstone, WHRC's Chief Communications Officer.
Last summer, global attention was focused on widespread fires in the Amazon. Fires - and related deforestation for agriculture - have destroyed 800,000 square kilometers of Amazon rainforest over recent decades. New research conducted by WHRC and IPAM Amazônia has shown that lowland tapirs can restore degraded Amazonian forests by spreading tree seeds in areas that had been previously burned, which may make it among the cheapest and easiest solutions for large-scale forest restoration.
The presentation is followed by a panel discussion with scientists involved in the research, Marcia Macedo (WHRC) and Lucas Paolucci (Federal University of Viçosa/IPAM).

[@davidclarke5938]

One of the last questions was about other animals, around the world that may have similar effects to the tapir in the Amazon. I had just finished viewing an episode of THE HISTORY GUY that talked about some environmental connections between the now extinct passenger pigeon and the unintended decline of WHITE OAK in forests across North America.
In short, the formerly dominant American WHITE OAK tree species remained dominant prior to 1900 because of the transcontinental distribution of ingested acorn seeds airlifted by an estimated five billion passenger pidgeons. The link to this video is... ua-cam.com/video/b8BPANZzsyU/v-deo.html