I received the following email from my grandson Parker who was on a field trip in Central America: “While walking a trail in Belize after dark, a member of our group spotted a faint eyeshine from across a cleared area. We cautiously approached, and once we realized what we were looking at we froze. Amazingly it was a humongous Baird’s tapir, rivaling the size of a small cow. The tapir appeared curious at our presence and approached within 15 feet of us as we stood, not moving. After inspecting us and getting a good sniff with its remarkably flexible snout, she turned around and disappeared back into the jungle.”
Tapirs get quite big, commonly reaching body weights of between 300 and 700 pounds. They are the largest land mammals native to South America. Because of their shy nature and usually solitary existence in jungles or other wooded habitats, these large mammals are not as familiar to people as the more conspicuous herd animals in open grasslands. The usual meeting between a person and a wild tapir presumably ends with no more excitement than safely observing a black bear in the Smokies. Of course, as with many large mammals (including black bears), the dynamics can change dramatically if one encounters a mother with her young. The maternal instinct is not to be messed with. Basic advice for observing a tapir: Although they are herbivores, they have big teeth and will bite. If you see a female tapir with a baby, don’t try to cuddle either of them.
Tapirs belong to a family of forest mammals whose closest relatives include horses and rhinoceroses. These appealing creatures with their long flexible snouts look like the results of a bizarre genetic experiment that involves crossbreeding a pig with a donkey whose adoptive parents were anteaters. The tapir’s long, prehensile nose is its most obvious morphological feature. Tapirs use it not only for sniffing out intruders in Belizean jungles but also for picking up vegetation. A tapir might also use its nose in escaping from a predator (such as a jaguar). How? By diving into a river and using its nose in much the same way we would use a snorkel.
Of the four species of tapirs, three are brown or grayish and live in mostly tropical rainforest habitats from Mexico through Central and South America and the Amazon Basin as far south as Paraguay. A fourth species native to the jungles of Southeast Asia, Sumatra and Malaysia has a black front, a grayish or white middle and black hind legs. The Denver Zoo refers to these as Oreo tapirs. Baby tapirs of all species are brownish with either white stripes or spots.
According to the Tapir Specialist Group of the IUCN (the World Conservation Union), three of the four species are listed as endangered. The group states that “the future of tapirs is threatened due to rapid decline and fragmentation of their habitat [because of] deforestation, agriculture [practices] and human habitation.” As with many large mammals, hunting, including poaching, has “also contributed to their loss.” So too has illegal logging, which has destroyed rainforest habitat. One reason for this animal’s decline in some areas is because recovery from loss in a tapir population is a slow process. They normally have only a single baby and a remarkably long gestation period, up to 14 months. The babies stay with their mothers for a year to a year and a half.
Tapirs are decidedly cool creatures, so learning of various conservation threats to them is vexing. As the Tapir Specialist Group notes, “Because of their enormous size and large range, the tapir is one of the first species in its habitat to be adversely affected by human disturbance.” Let us hope their conservation efforts as well as those of others will succeed in keeping these unusual animals around so any of us might experience a chance encounter in the jungle.
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Publish date : 2024-10-25 22:59:00
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