More info about the Baird’s Tapir…
The tapir is not a well-recognized animal like the rhino or the giant panda – many people don’t really know what one looks like and most people have never seen one, even in a zoo. And so here is a little bit of information about the animal we are planning to reintroduce.
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Tapiridae
Species: Tapirus bairdii
Spanish name: Danta
Range: Southern Mexico to Ecuador, from sea level to over 3000m
Size: 2m, 250kg, (80 inches, 550lbs), males slightly smaller than females, the largest native land mammal in Central and South America
Life span: up to 35 years in captivity, although probably less in the wild
Appearance and anatomy
Although the tapir’s closest relatives are the horse and rhinoceros, it resembles a large pig. Adult tapirs are blackish brown in color with white tips to their ears. The young also have white streaks and spots on their backs, which helps to camouflage them from predators such as large cats. However just as puppies lose their soft downy fur as they mature, tapirs lose these white marking on their backs at around 3 months old.
A Baird’s tapir has a very mobile and muscular upper lip, which could be likened to a large snout. However rather than using it to root for food as pigs do, the tapir uses it more like a short trunk to reach leaves it cannot reach with its tongue and to bend and snap tasty young saplings. It has well developed incisors, (front teeth), like a horse, as well as strong and hard-wearing premolars and molars (back teeth) which it uses to chew foliage and crush and grind some of the hard seeds which make up part of its diet.
Tapirs have 3 toes on their hind feet and 4 on their front feet, although the fourth toe is a little higher then the others and so is not always visible in tracks. The design of their feet allows them to travel easily through muddy areas. As they sink, the toes splay and then as the feet are withdrawn from the mud the toes are brought together and the narrower foot is easily and silently extracted.
Diet
Studies have shown that around 75% of a tapir’s diet consists of stems and leaves and the remainder of fruit of which they seem to be particularly fond if given the choice. This probably varies seasonally. They are known to eat over 100 different plant species, many of which are found growing naturally in this area.
Habitat
Tapirs are mainly found in remote regions, probably due to hunting, often in areas of secondary forest, which may provide them with the widest variety of food. Fresh water is an essential part of their habitat. They usually rest in or near water and also prefer to defecate in water.
Breeding
The gestation period of a tapir is 13 months. Females usually have a single calf, which will stay with her for up to one year after birth. They tend to have young every other year. The young reach full size and sexual maturity by 2-4 years of age. They are therefore very slow to reproduce and numbers have been slow to increase, even in areas where they are protected form hunting.
Behavior
Tapirs are generally solitary animals and are active by day and night, although studies have shown that their peak activity is shortly before dawn and shortly after dusk. Because of this it is thought that they have fairly good night vision. They are wary of humans, wisely so perhaps, given the fact that they were hunted almost to extinction throughout most of the 1900s for their meat and hides and for sport.
During social interactions they make clicking hiccupping sounds, or descending whistling calls to more distant tapirs. When irritated they pin their ears back and flare their lips like horses and when nervous they hold their ears upright and still, suggesting that they have a fairly well developed sense of hearing.
The sense they seem to rely on most, however, is their sense of smell. They sniff the air constantly when nervous are rarely seen for long from downwind. Tapirs tend to sniff food carefully before eating, rejecting what they don’t fancy. They also use scent to mark where they have been, by digging the ground with their hind feet and urinating. In their favorite spots, accumulations of white urine crystals may be found.
Tapirs are surprisingly agile creatures and can run as fast as a man. When fleeing they can charge through dense undergrowth, protected by their thick skin and aided by their tapered shape. They are also good swimmers and are able to ascend almost vertical slopes.
Bibliography
The Natural History of Costa Rican Mammals, Mark Wainwright
Field Guide to the Wildlife of Costa Rica, Carol L. Henderson
Costa Rican Natural History, Edited by Daniel H. Janzen
