A tapir was seen walking on the road between Cañas and Liberia on Monday night by several people who passed through the sector.
The photographs were shared on the Facebook site Calles Guanacaste. Readers noted that the sighting occurred in the sector of the pedestrian bridge near the Corazón de Jesús neighborhood in Liberia.
According to the message there are reports of hunters, who seek the animal to kill and illegally trade it.
Esteban Brenes, founder of the scientific organization that studies tapirs, Nai Conservation, explained that this is not common in the sector, because the forested area is quite far away.
Although there’s no certainty about what happened, there are several hypotheses that indicate that the tapir was lost and began to run away from the forest. It could also be that he was in captivity and managed to escape or that it ran into a predator and began to flee through the paddocks.
Authorities in the area are trying to find the animal to protect it and because it could cause an accident, especially since the permitted speed limit is 90 kilometers per hour and many trailers and heavy trucks pass by.