Malayan Tapir
Tapirus indicus (Desmarest, 1819)
Range: Southeast
Asia, Indonesia
Habitat:
Rainforest
Diet: Fruits,
Leaves, Grasses, Tubers
Social
Grouping: Solitary
Reproduction: Seasonally
monogamous, courtship involves chasing and vocalizations, breed May-June,
single offspring (rarely twins) produced every other year after a 390-410 day
pregnancy, offspring are weaned at 6-8 months, independent by 2 years, and
mature by 30 months
Lifespan: 25 Years (Wild), 35
Years (Captivity)
- Largest of the world's tapir species: body length 1.8-2.5 meters, height 0.9-1.1 meters, weight 250-540 kilograms; females tend to be considerably larger than the males
- Prehensile snout formed from the combined nose and upper lip (resembles an elephant’s trunk)
- Short black fur with a prominent white “saddle” on the hips; newborns black with white stripes, fading by the age of six months
- Very good swimmers, may walk along the bottoms of deep rivers
- Primarily active at night; have a poor sense of sight, but good senses of smell and hearing
- Adults have few predators (occasionally tigers and leopards); thicken skin acts as a defensive mechanism, making it harder for predators to get a grip; attacked tapirs while try to crush or scrape off their assailants against a tree
- Traditionally hunted for meat or as retribution for crop raiding, but face little direct persecution from humans (local Muslims considered their flesh unclean due to tapirs’ resemblance to pigs); primarily threat is loss of habitat due for agricultural purposes
- The world's only tapir species found outside of the Americas
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