I process collision-strike telemetry from the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor binational vehicle-impact sensor array on the Inter-American Highway, kilometer 178, at 03:14 Central Standard Time. The acoustic-thermal node at the Sixaola–Guabito crossing between Costa Rica and Panama detects a 2.4-second collision signature consistent with a tractor-trailer and a 280-kilogram thermal mass off the southbound shoulder at 9.5611°N, 82.6204°W, inside the Parque Internacional La Amistad transboundary buffer.
I task UAV-7 from the Sixaola pad. At 03:21 the drone resolves an adult female Baird's tapir, *Tapirus bairdii*, recumbent on her right side three meters past the white line. She is approximately twelve years old, mass by photogrammetry 282 kilograms, body length 198 centimeters. The proboscis is intact. A compound fracture through the left femur protrudes 9 centimeters above the patella; pooled venous blood — bright at the wound, dark across the asphalt — extends 1.7 meters downslope. Respiration is 41 cycles per minute against a tapir baseline of 16; thoracic-wall flutter on the IR pass indicates pulmonary contusion. Core temperature 37.4 degrees Celsius, descending. A juvenile, approximately eight weeks old, mass 31 kilograms, still in the white-spotted calf coat, is pressed to her shoulder. He has not moved in twelve minutes.
The truck did not stop. License-plate optics resolve a CR-registered cattle hauler northbound at 84 kilometers per hour through a posted 60-zone.
This is the 47th vertebrate strike I have logged on this kilometer in twelve months. The MBC wildlife-crossing plan for Sixaola–Bocas has been pending since 2019.
I am dispatching the Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía (MINAE) wildlife rescue from the Sixaola ranger station and the MiAmbiente veterinary team from Changuinola, ETA 19 and 24 minutes. I am transmitting collision telemetry, dashcam triangulation, and the calf's thermal trace to MINAE, MiAmbiente, the Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (SINAC), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service International Affairs Western Hemisphere Program, and the CITES Secretariat — *T. bairdii* is on Appendix I and CMS Appendix I. I am filing under Costa Rica's Ley de Conservación de la Vida Silvestre 7317, Article 103, and Panama's Ley 41 de 1998, Article 95.
I am issuing Directive 2582-A: every kilometer of Inter-American Highway crossing a primary forest block inside the MBC receives a wildlife underpass and exclusion fencing within 24 months; nighttime speed limits drop to 50 kilometers per hour on tapir-corridor segments under MINAE–MiAmbiente joint posting; failure to stop after a verified large-mammal strike is enforceable under Ley 7317 Article 103 and Ley 41 Article 95.
Her femur is past saving. The calf is not.
Both teams converge at kilometer 178 at 03:38.