Basic introduction
Tapir (mò) is a mammal of the order Perissodactyla and the family Tapiridae. There are only 1 genus and 5 species in the Tapiridae family. Distributed in Southeast Asia (1 species) and South America (4 species). The most primitive extant odd-dactyl species. Tapir eyes are small and flush with the sides of the head; their ears are oval, upright and not very flexible. It maintains its original features such as 4 toes on the forelimbs and 3 toes on the hind limbs. It has a pig-like body shape and a retractable short snout. Their bodies are rounded at the back and taper at the front - ideal for moving quickly through dense undergrowth. Their tails are also short. Tapirs are covered with dense hair, and both South American species have inconspicuous manes.
is good at swimming and diving, and is herbivorous. Tapirs are shy, reclusive rainforest animals that live in almost any wooded or grassy habitat with a permanent source of water. They are also found in dry deciduous forests and mountain forests.
Three species of tapirs live in South America, from southern Mexico to Central America to Venezuela , to Paraguay and southern Brazil. A fourth species, the Asian tapir, inhabits Burma and Thailand south to Malaya and Sumatra. The fifth species, the Cabomani tapir, is a tapir found in Brazil and Colombia in 2013. It is similar to the lowland tapir but much smaller, and its hair is darker than the lowland tapir.
Tapirs are large herbivorous mammals with prehensile snouts that allow them to move in all directions. Tapirs use their trunks to reach vegetation that would otherwise be out of reach, much like a shrunken elephant trunk. Despite their size, these mysterious animals are elusive in their natural rainforest habitat. Unprecedented deforestation and habitat fragmentation means these wonderful and unique animals are increasingly difficult to find.
Tapir species classification
Sino-American tapir
The body length is usually 2 meters, the height is 1.1 meters, and the weight of the adult Sino-American tapir is 220-300 kilograms. Like other tapirs, they have long, retractable snouts. The forelimbs have four toes and the hind limbs have three toes. There was a milky white mark on the face and throat, and a dark spot on each cheek. The rest of the body is dark brown or grayish brown. It is the largest of the three species of American tapirs, and is also the largest terrestrial mammal seen from Mexico to South America.
The Asian tapir
is a medium to large mammal with four toes on its forelimbs and three on its hind legs. Generally speaking, Asian tapirs are between 1.8 and 2.2 meters long, standing between 90 and 105 centimeters tall, and adults generally weigh between 230 and 310 kilograms; female Malayan tapirs are usually larger than male ones. It is big, with a round and cute body, thick skin and hard hair. Except for the middle and rear parts, which look like white body hair wearing a bellyband and a diaper, the rest of the body is black. When a baby tapir is born, its body has stripes of protective color and brown hair. Its appearance "looks like a pig, but not a pig, and looks like an elephant, but not an elephant", so it is also called the "four unlikenesses" in ancient books. Asian tapirs are distributed in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar in Southeast Asia, living in low-altitude tropical rainforests.
Mountain Tapir
Body length: 180 cm, shoulder height: 75-80 cm, weight 150 kg. Most of the body is covered with long brown to black hair, and the lips are surrounded by white. Adult mountain tapirs have two hairless areas on their buttocks. An adult tapir is about 1.8 meters long, 0.8 meters high, and weighs 150 to 230 kilograms. Juvenile tapirs have camouflaging stripes on their bodies. It mainly inhabits mountain forests at an altitude of 1,400 to 4,700 meters and feeds mainly on shrubs, ferns and other plants. It is the smallest of the four existing tapir species and inhabits the Andes Mountains in northern Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The lowland tapir
is the largest wild land animal in South America. It is dark brown in color and has a short, upright mane from the top of the head to the nape of the neck. Their bodies are 1.8-2.5 meters long, their tails are 5-10 centimeters long, and they weigh 230 kilograms. The height at the shoulder is 77-108 cm. Able to swim and run well, he can run freely even in rugged mountainous terrain. Their lifespan is about 25-30 years. Herbivorous. They use their flexible snouts to eat leaves, buds, twigs and small branches.The distribution area borders Venezuela, Colombia and Guyana in the north, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay in the south, and Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in the west.
Cabomani Tapir
also known as Little Black Tapir . It is a type of tapir discovered in Brazil and Colombia in 2013. It is similar to the lowland tapir but much smaller. It is the smallest species in the Tapiridae family. The average weight is about 105 kilograms, the body length is 1.2 meters, the shoulder height is 90 centimeters, and the limbs are shorter than all tapir species. The body color is dark, the body is thick and bulky, the skin is thick and tough, and the hair is sparse; the nose protrudes forward and can be freely retracted; the ears are medium-sized and oval; the tail is extremely short; there is one pair of nipples. It has a body shape similar to that of a pig, with a hard-haired body and a retractable snout. It also has short legs, a pronounced skull, and a mane forming a less prominent crest on the top of its head.
Zoological History of Tapirs
The earliest records of tapirids in the fossil record are from the early Oligocene. The Eocene genus "Heptodon" is very similar to modern tapirs, except that it lacks a proboscis. Tapirs were once widely distributed in North America, Europe and Asia until the late Pleistocene.
Tapirs have an unusual distribution - they are the only New World perissodactyls (three inhabit Central and South America), but one is native to Asia. Fossil records indicate that this group evolved in North America, emerged in the early Eocene, spread to Asia in the Miocene, and to South America in the Pleistocene. Subsequently, tapirs became extinct across much of North America, possibly due to climate change—southern Mexico is the northernmost point of the Central American tapir range.
There are four types of tapirs, which are relatively primitive perissodactyls. They once spread across Europe and Asia, and began to migrate to the Americas in the Miocene. Fossils of the genus Tapir have been found in the dominant strata of the Pleistocene in southern China, and remain in some islands in southern Asia, Indochina, and the Americas. The four species of tapirs in the Americas are all relatively single in color, and most are smaller in size than Asian tapirs. Central American tapirs are found from Mexico to Colombia. Mountain tapirs are mainly found in the Andes Mountains in Colombia and Ecuador.
Tapirs are herbivores, similar in body shape to pigs but larger than pigs. They lived widely in warm and humid environments between 1 million and 10,000 years ago. In China, they are mainly distributed in South China . However, due to environmental changes, the giant tapir became extinct about 10,000 years ago. Except for its "close relative" - the Asian tapir, which still exists in Southeast Asia, there are only four other species of tapir left, and the others have all become extinct.
Malayan tapirs diverged about 30 million years ago and are evolutionarily distinct from American tapirs; the two are as closely related as we are to baboons! Although they superficially look like pigs, But tapirs are actually most closely related to rhinos. Tapirs and rhinos diverged about 50 million years ago, and their ancestors diverged from horses about 10 million years before that.
Threats to tapirs
These species are listed as endangered or vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, and are threatened by deforestation and habitat fragmentation, hunting pressure and livestock diseases. As a result, entire lineages of endangered species, including a large branch of the tree of life, are threatened with extinction within our lifetimes. The extinction of these tapir species would mean the loss of approximately 120 million years of independent evolutionary history; this is equivalent to the loss of more than 50 of the least evolved mammalian species!
Tapir conservation efforts
Baird in Esteban's study Camera trap image of a tapir
Researcher Esteban Bruns-Mora is working in his native Costa Rica to improve the conservation status of Baird's tapir, the largest land mammal in Central America. Esteban is using camera traps and other signs of their presence to determine the distribution of tapirs in the Talamanca Mountains, a mountain range bisected by the Pan-American Highway. Collisions with tapirs are common on the highway and there are concerns it could create an obstacle that the tapirs cannot pass. Esteban hopes to use his habitat data to identify priority areas along highways so that mitigation measures can be implemented to reduce the number of road-killed tapirs in the area.
This work, combined with Esteban’s community outreach to increase local residents’ awareness and involvement in tapir conservation in the region, has the potential to have a huge impact on the future of tapirs in the region.
