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Tapir

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Tapirs are odd-toed ungulates form the family Tapiridae. The only living genus is Tapirus. The first tapirids appeared in the Eocene epoch, and by the Oligocene they looked similar to the present-day species. For much of their history, tapirs were spread across the Northern Hemisphere extinct as recently as 10,000 years ago.[1]

Tapir
Tapirus terrestris.jpg
Brazilian tapir
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Perissodactyla
Family:
Tapiridae

Gray, 1821
Genus:
Tapirus

Brünnich, 1772

Taxonomy


Appearance

Tapirs are about 2 m / 7 ft long and about 1 meter / 3 ft high. They weigh between 150 - 300 kg / 330 - 700 lb. They have a rounded body and very short stubby tails. Tapirs have hoofed toes, with four toes on the front feet and three toes on the hind feet. The Tapir's upper lip and nose have formed a short trunk, and they have a long tongue.

Tapirs have a short fur, with colors that are reddish-brown to grey to nearly black. Exceptions are the Mountain Tapir and the Asian Tapir. The Mountain Tapir has longer wooly fur. The Asian Tapir has a black front part and legs, and a white middle part and back. All baby tapirs have brown fur, with lighter stripes and dots for camouflage.

Tapirs cannot see very well, but they have good hearing and a very good sense of smell. Tapirs also swim very well.

Habitat

Tapirs live in of South America and Central America, except the Asian Tapir which lives in Southeast Asia. Tapirs live in dense forests, and close to water. They can also live in savannah biomes, or in dry tropical deciduous forests near a permanent water source.[2]

Life

Tapirs are active at night. They eat leaves, fruit, berries, vegetables and nuts.

Tapirs live alone. After a pregnancy of about 13 months, the female gives birth to a single baby. After half a year the baby starts to lose the baby-coloring of its fur. When the young tapir is one year old it looks like an adult tapir, and it leaves its mother. Tapirs become mature when they are 4 years old. Tapirs can become 25 – 30 years old.

Gallery

  • Brazilian or lowland tapir

  • Baird's tapir

  • Malayan tapir

  • A young Brazilian tapir

Tapir Media

  • Tapirus bairdii -Franklin Park Zoo, Massachusetts, USA-8a

  • South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris)

  • Tapir górski

  • Malayan Tapir Tapirus indicus at Louisville Zoo

  • Protapirus robustus jaw, University of California Museum of Paleontology

  • Fossil of Tapirus- Took the picture at Natural History Museum, Basel

  • Profile skull of a Plesiotapirus yagii on display at the Paleozoological Museum of China (background knocked out for clarity).

  • Protapirus simplex (syn. P. validus)

  • AMNH 18748, collected in Wanxian, Sichuan, China, in 1922-1923 by W. Granger.

  • (video) A tapir at Ueno Zoo

References

  1. ↑ Palmer D. (ed) 1999. The Marshall illustrated encyclopedia of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. London: Marshall Editions, p. 261. ISBN 1-84028-152-9
  2. ↑ Jirik, Kate. "LibGuides: Tapirs (extant/living species; Tapirus spp.) Fact Sheet: Distribution & Habitat". ielc.libguides.com. Retrieved 2023-11-07.

Other websites

  Wikispecies has information on: Tapiridae.
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