The tapir is a large mammal that despite it's pig-like appearance, is believed to be most closely related to horses and rhinos. The tapir is found in moist, dense forests in the more temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere. There are four known species of tapir today, all of which are classified as endangered.
The different species of tapir are the Baird's Tapir which is native to
Central America and the northern parts of South America.
The Baird's
Tapir can be identified by the fact that this species of tapir has a
cream coloured marking on it's face. The Malayan Tapir (also
known as the Asian Tapir) is the largest of the tapir species and has a
distinctive white band across it's body. The Malayan Tapir once roamed
the tropical forests across South East Asia but the Malayan Tapir today
has a much smaller range primarily due to habitat loss. The Mountain
Tapir is the smallest of the four different tapir species and (as the
name suggests) it inhabits more mountainous regions rather than lowland
forests.
The tapir is a herbivore and
spends it's time browsing for food to eat. The tapir eats leaves,
twigs, branches, buds, shoots, berries, fruits and aquatic plants. Due
to it's large size, the tapir has few natural predators in it's
environment but it is known to be prey upon by wild cats such as tigers,
jaguars and cougars along with large reptiles like crocodiles and even
the odd snake. The human is believed to be the most common predator of
the tapir as they have been hunted for food and even domesticated in
some areas.
Tapirs are solitary animals with the exception of the mating season and the mother tapir nursing the baby tapir. Due to the fact that tapirs are very shy animals there
has been little interaction between humans and wild tapirs (besides
hunters). However, tapirs are known to defend themselves using their
powerful jaws and although rare, tapir attacks on humans are known to
occur. The most damage the tapir will generally do though is give you a
nasty bite. Source
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