Tapir

A tapir is a large, browsing animal, roughly the shape of an over-sized pig but with a short, prehensile trunk. Size varies with different species, but most are about 2 metres long, stand about a metre high at the shoulder, and weigh between 150 and 300 kilos.

The tapir family is old by mammal standards: the earliest fossil tapir dates to the early Oligocene, and Eocene rocks from as long as 55 million years ago contain a wide range of tapir-like animals. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates: horses and rhinoceroses.

Although tapirs were once widespread, only four species endured into the modern world: three from Central and the warmer parts of South America, one from South-east Asia.

• ORDER PERISSODACTYLA
  • Family Equidae: horses and allies, 9 species in one genus
  • Family Tapiridae
    • Brazilian Tapir[?], Tapirus terrestris
    • Mountain Tapir[?], Tapirus pinchaque
    • Baird's Tapir[?], Tapirus bairdii
    • Malayan Tapir[?], Tapirus indicus
  • Family Rhinocerotidae: rhinoceroses, 5 species in 4 genera

Tapirs are forest animals that love water. Although they frequently live in dryland forest, given access to lakes or rivers tapirs spend a good deal of time in and under the water, feeding on soft marine vegetation and taking refuge from predators. The Brazilian Tapir[?] often sinks to the bottom of a stream and walks along the riverbed to feed. In forests, they eat fruit, leaves, and berries.

The three lowland tapirs are largely nocturnal and crepuscular. The smaller Mountain Tapir[?] of the Andes is generally diurnal, but all four species react to hunting pressure by retreating deeper into inacessable regions and becoming more nocturnal and more secretive.

Although they are taken by tigers and other big cats, bears, crocodiles and ananconda, humans are by far their major predator. Hunting for meat and hides has substantially reduced their numbers and more recently massive habitat loss has resulted in the conservation watch-listing of all four species: the Brazilian Tapir is classified as lower risk, near threatened; both Baird's and the Malayan Tapir are classed as vulnerable; and the Mountain Tapir is endangered.