Common Name: South American Tapir Scientific Name: Tapirus terrestris
VULNERABLE South American Tapir Distribution: South America
Habitat: Dense Forest Height: Approx. 200cm Weight: Up to 270kg Diet: Herbivorous
The tapir is dark brown in colour and has white tips to its ears. The tapir has a characteristic flexible snout used to manipulate vegetation. Tapirs use their noses a little bit like a very small elephant trunk. They can wrap it around vegetation and pull it our of the ground. The tapir has three toes on the front feet and 4 toes on the rear feet. As an adult they stand at 2 m in height and weigh around 270 kg. A short mane runs along the neck of the tapir, but the hair on the rest of the body is sparse. The tapir is found in South America where it occupies rainforest and swamp habitat. They like dense forest as they are secretive creatures. A South American tapirs diet is made up of lots of vegetation. They eat leaves, buds, shoots, fruit, grasses and aquatic plants which it manipulates with its prehensile snout. The adult tapir are solitary and spend the time wandering around the forest or submerged in the water feeding on aquatic vegetation. The female produces a single calf after a gestation period of 390 – 400 days. The young are brown with white stripes and spots which aids in camouflaging them until they are 6 – 8 months of age.