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© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Dean Foy

Malayan Tapir

Tapirella indicus

Physical Characteristics

  • Short, bristly hairs are scattered over the body. The thick skin on the front half of the body and the hind legs is black, and on the rear half of the body, above the legs, white. The snout and upper lips protrude into a short, fleshy proboscis with nostrils at the tip. The legs are short with three toes on each foot, and the tail is short and thick. The young are spotted and striped.
  • Size of average adult
    • height: 2 - 4 feet at the shoulder
    • length: 6 - 8 feet
    • weight: 396 - 485 pounds
  • Approximate life span is 30 years.

Diet

  • Wild: aquatic vegetation, leaves, buds, fruits of low-growing terrestrial plants and green shoots of browsing plants

Behavior

  • Good hill climbers, runners, sliders, waders, divers and swimmers
  • Shy, docile, seek shelter in forests during the day, emerge to borders at night to feed
  • Keen sense of hearing and smell
  • Solitary except for females with young
  • Communicate with shrill whistling sounds, scent mark with urine
  • Reproduction
    • sexual maturity: 3 - 4 years
    • breeding season: April or May
    • gestation: 390 - 395 days
    • the single young, weighing about 15 pounds, stays with the mother for at least 6 - 8 months, by this time it has lost its juvenile coloring and nearly reached adult size

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: wooded or grassy areas with a permanent supply of water
  • Distribution: southern Burma and Thailand, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and possibly Laos
  • Status: Endangered, CITES Appendix I
    • hunted: food and sport
    • habitat destruction: agriculture and grazing
    • susceptible to horse diseases
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