Tapir

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For other uses, see Tapir (disambiguation).

Tapir
Temporal range: 33.9–0 
Ma
Early Oligocene[1]
– Recent
Tapir species, from top left clockwise: South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque), Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii) and Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Clade:
Tapiromorpha
Suborder:
Ceratomorpha
Superfamily: Tapiroidea
Family: Tapiridae
Gray, 1821[2][3]
Type genus
Tapirus
Brisson, 1762
Genera[7]
About 15
Synonyms[3]
  • Elasmognathinae Gray, 1867

Tapirs (

rhinoceroses. Only a single genus, Tapirus, is currently extant. Tapirs migrated into South America during the Pleistocene epoch from North America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama as part of the Great American Interchange.[9] Tapirs were formerly present across North America, but became extinct in the region at the end of the Late Pleistocene
, around 12,000 years ago.

Species

See also: List of perissodactyls § Tapiridae

There are four widely recognized extant

kabomani tapir. However, the existence of the kabomani tapir as a distinct species has been widely disputed, and recent genetic evidence further suggests that it actually is part of the species South American tapir.[10][11]

Extant species

Photo Common name Scientific name Distribution
Baird's tapir (also called the Central American tapir) Tapirus bairdii (Gill, 1865) Mexico, Central America and northwestern South America
South American tapir (also called the Brazilian tapir or lowland tapir) Tapirus terrestris (
Linnaeus, 1758
)		 Venezuela, Colombia, and the Guianas in the north to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay in the south, to Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador in the West.
Mountain tapir (also called the woolly tapir) Tapirus pinchaque (Roulin, 1829) Eastern and Central Cordilleras mountains in Colombia, Ecuador, and the far north of Peru.
Malayan tapir (also called the Asian tapir, Oriental tapir or Indian tapir) Tapirus indicus (Desmarest, 1819) Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand

The four species are all classified on the

odd-toed ungulates, which include horses, wild asses, zebras and rhinoceroses
.

During the

Tapirus augustus (formerly placed in Megatapirus), native to Southeast and East Asia, substantially larger than the Malayan tapir, also became extinct at some point during the Late Pleistocene.[13]

General appearance

(video) A tapir at Ueno Zoo

Size varies between types, but most tapirs are about 2 m (6+1⁄2 ft) long, stand about 1 m (3+1⁄4 ft) high at the shoulder, and weigh between 150 and 300 kg (330 and 660 lb). Their coats are short and range in colour from reddish brown, to grey, to nearly black, with the notable exceptions of the Malayan tapir, which has a white, saddle-shaped marking on its back, and the mountain tapir, which has longer, woolly fur. All tapirs have oval, white-tipped ears, rounded, protruding rumps with stubby tails, and splayed, hooved toes, with four toes on the front feet and three on the hind feet, which help them to walk on muddy and soft ground. Baby tapirs of all types have striped-and-spotted coats for camouflage. Females have a single pair of mammary glands,[14] and males have long penises relative to their body size.[15][16][17][18][19]

Physical characteristics

Tapir showing the flehmen response

The

cranium, and a more elongated and retracted nasoincisive incisure.[20][21]

Tapirs have brachyodont, or low-crowned teeth, that lack cementum. Their dental formula is:

Dentition
3.1.4.3
3.1.3–4.3

Totaling 42 to 44 teeth, this

lophodonts, and their cheek teeth have distinct lophs (ridges) between protocones, paracones, metacones and hypocones.[25][26]

Tapirs have brown eyes, often with a bluish cast to them, which has been identified as corneal cloudiness, a condition most commonly found in Malayan tapirs. The exact etiology is unknown, but the cloudiness may be caused by excessive exposure to light or by trauma.[27][28] However, the tapir's sensitive ears and strong sense of smell help to compensate for deficiencies in vision.

Tapirs have simple stomachs and are hindgut fermenters that ferment digested food in a large cecum.[29]

Life cycle

Young tapirs reach sexual maturity between three and five years of age, with females maturing earlier than males.[30] Under good conditions, a healthy female tapir can reproduce every two years; a single young, called a calf, is born after a gestation of about 13 months.[31] The natural lifespan of a tapir is about 25 to 30 years, both in the wild and in zoos.[32] Apart from mothers and their young offspring, tapirs lead almost exclusively solitary lives.

Behaviour

Although they frequently live in dryland forests, tapirs with access to rivers spend a good deal of time in and under water, feeding on soft vegetation, taking refuge from

predators, and cooling off during hot periods. Tapirs near a water source will swim, sink to the bottom, and walk along the riverbed to feed, and have been known to submerge themselves to allow small fish to pick parasites off their bulky bodies.[32]
Along with freshwater lounging, tapirs often wallow in mud pits, which helps to keep them cool and free of insects.

In the wild, the tapir's diet consists of fruit, berries, and leaves, particularly young, tender vegetation. Tapirs will spend many of their waking hours foraging along well-worn trails, snouts to the ground in search of food. Baird's tapirs have been observed to eat around 40 kg (85 lb) of vegetation in one day.[33]

Tapirs are largely

congeners. They have monocular vision
.

Copulation may occur in or out of water. In captivity, mating pairs will often copulate several times during oestrus.[14][34] Intromission lasts between 10 and 20 minutes.[35]

  • An adult Malayan tapir sitting
    An adult Malayan tapir sitting
  • Adult Malayan tapir exhibiting the flehmen response
    Adult Malayan tapir exhibiting the flehmen response
  • The undersides of the front feet (left, with four toes) and back feet (right, with three toes) of a Malayan tapir at rest
    The undersides of the front feet (left, with four toes) and back feet (right, with three toes) of a Malayan tapir at rest
  • A baby South American tapir, with spots and stripes characteristic of all juvenile tapirs
    A baby South American tapir, with spots and stripes characteristic of all juvenile tapirs
  • Tooth from the extinct Tapirus veroensis, 2.5 cm (1 in) wide, about 1 million years old, alluvial deposits, Florida, US
    Tooth from the extinct Tapirus veroensis, 2.5 cm (1 in) wide, about 1 million years old, alluvial deposits, Florida, US

Habitat, predation, and vulnerability

Adult tapirs are large enough to have few natural predators, and the thick skin on the backs of their necks helps to protect them from threats such as

lowland tapir in the Atlantic Forest is at risk of complete extinction as a result of anthropogenic pressures, in particular hunting, deforestation and population isolation.[36][37][38]

Evolution and natural history

Tapirs originated from the "

Great American Biotic Interchange with their oldest records on the continent dating to around 2.6-1 million years ago.[9]

Approximate divergence times based on a 2013 analysis of

paraphyletic complex of T. terrestris populations.[43]

Tapirus

T. indicus
 (Malayan tapir)

T. terrestris
 (South American tapir, Ecuador cluster)

T. pinchaque
 (mountain tapir)

T. terrestris (South American tapir, other clusters)

T. bairdii
 (Baird's tapir)

Genetics

Baird's tapir
A mountain tapir, the woolliest and most threatened species of tapir

The species of tapir have the following chromosomal numbers:

Malayan tapir, T. indicus 2n = 52
Mountain tapir, T. pinchaque 2n = 76
Baird's tapir, T. bairdii 2n = 80
South American tapir, T. terrestris 2n = 80

The Malayan tapir, the species most isolated geographically and genetically, has a significantly smaller number of chromosomes and has been found to share fewer

G-banded preparations have revealed Malayan, Baird's and South American tapirs have identical X chromosomes, while mountain tapirs are separated by a heterochromatic addition/deletion.[44]

Lack of genetic diversity in tapir populations has become a major source of concern for conservationists. Habitat loss has isolated already small populations of wild tapirs, putting each group in greater danger of dying out completely. Even in zoos, genetic diversity is limited; all captive mountain tapirs, for example, are descended from only two founder individuals.[45]

Hybrids of Baird's and the South American tapirs were bred at the San Francisco Zoo around 1969 and later produced a backcross second generation.[46]

Conservation

A number of conservation projects have been started around the world. The Tapir Specialist Group, a unit of the

Species Survival Commission, strives to conserve biological diversity by stimulating, developing, and conducting practical programs to study, save, restore, and manage the four species of tapir and their remaining habitats in Central and South America and Southeast Asia.[47]

The Baird's Tapir Project of Costa Rica, begun in 1994, is the longest ongoing tapir project in the world. It involves placing radio collars on tapirs in Costa Rica's Corcovado National Park to study their social systems and habitat preferences.[48]

The Lowland Lowland Tapir Conservation Initiative is a conservation and research organization founded by Patrícia Medici, focused on tapir conservation in Brazil.

Attacks on humans

Tapirs are generally shy, but when scared they can defend themselves with their very powerful jaws. In 1998, a zookeeper in Oklahoma City was mauled and had an arm severed after opening the door to a female tapir's enclosure to push food inside (the tapir's two-month-old baby also occupied the cage at the time).[49] In 2006, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Echandi (who was then the Costa Rican Environmental Minister) became lost in the Corcovado National Park and was found by a search party with a "nasty bite" from a wild tapir.[50] In 2013, a two-year-old girl suffered stomach and arm injuries after being mauled by a South American tapir in Dublin Zoo during a supervised experience in the tapir enclosure. Dublin Zoo pleaded guilty to breaching health and safety regulations and was ordered to pay €5,000 to charity.[51] However, such examples are rare; for the most part, tapirs are likely to avoid confrontation in favour of running from predators, hiding, or, if possible, submerging themselves in nearby water until a threat is gone.[52]

Frank Buck wrote about an attack by a tapir in 1926, which he described in his book, Bring 'Em Back Alive.[53]

Folklore

Tapirs feature in the folklore of several cultures around the world. In Japan, tapirs are associated with the mythological Baku, believed to ward off nightmares. In South America, tapirs are associated with the creation of the earth.[54]

References

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  2. ^ Gray, J.E. (1821). "On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals". The London Medical Repository Monthly Journal and Review. 15: 296–310.
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  6. ^ a b c Hulbert, R.C. (2010). "A new early Pleistocene tapir (Mammalia: Perissodactyla) from Florida, with a review of Blancan tapirs from the state" (PDF). Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History. 49 (3): 67–126.
  7. ^ "Tapiridae". Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  8. ^ "Definition of tapir". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved April 26, 2021.
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  15. ^ Hickey, R.S. Georgina (1997). "Tapir Penis". Nature Australia. 25 (8): 10–11.
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  23. ^ Huffman, Brent. Order Perissodactyla at Ultimate Ungulate
  24. ^ "Lydekker, Richard (1911). "Perissodactyla" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 169–171.
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  27. ^ Tapirs Described, the Tapir Gallery
  28. ^ Janssen, Donald L., DVM, Dipl ACZM, Bruce A. Rideout, DVM, PhD, Dipl ACVP, Mark E. Edwards, PhD. "Medical Management of Captive Tapirs (Tapirus sp.)." 1996 American Association of Zoo Veterinarians Proceedings. Nov 1996. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Pp. 1–11
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  30. ^ "Woodland Park Zoo Animal Fact Sheet: Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus)". Zoo.org. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
  31. ^ Tapir | San Diego Zoo Animals.
  32. ^ a b Morris, Dale (March 2005). "Face to face with big nose." Archived 2006-05-06 at the Wayback Machine BBC Wildlife. pp. 36–37.
  33. ^ TPF News, Tapir Preservation Fund, Vol. 4, No. 7, July 2001. See section on study by Charles Foerster.
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  36. ^ O'Connell-Domenech, Alejandra (January 17, 2022). "Atlantic Forest tapir at risk of complete extinction, scientists say". The Hill. Retrieved January 24, 2022.
  37. ^ Cockburn, Harry (January 17, 2022). "Lowland tapirs at increasing risk of extinction, scientists warn". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-05-26. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
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  48. ^ "Baird's Tapir Project of Costa Rica". Savetapirs.org. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2009-11-02.
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  51. ^ Tuite, Tom (14 October 2014) "Dublin Zoo pleads guilty to safety breach in tapir attack on child", The Irish Times
  52. ^ Goudot, Justin (1843). "Nouvelles observations sur le Tapir Pinchaque" [Recent Observations on the Tapir Pinchaque]. Comptes Rendus. 16: 331–334. Report contains accounts of wild mountain tapirs shying away from human contact at salt deposits after being hunted, and hiding.
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  54. ^ "Native American Indian Tapir Legends, Meaning and Symbolism from the Myths of Many Tribes". www.native-languages.org. Retrieved 2022-06-19.

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Tapir".
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tapiridae.
Wikispecies has information related to Tapiridae.
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