A tapir is a large herbivorous mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. The five extant species of tapirs are the Brazilian tapir, the Malayan tapir, Baird's tapir, the kabomani tapir, and the mountain tapir. The four species that have been evaluated (The Brazilian, Malayan, Baird's and mountain tapir) have all been classified as endangered or vulnerable.
Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates, including horses and rhinoceroses. Size varies between types, but most tapirs are about 2 m (7 ft) long, stand about 1 m (3 ft) high at the shoulder, and weigh between 150 and 300 kg (330 and 700 lb). Their coats are short and range in color 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.
Tapir Credit
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, and males have exceptionally long[clarify] penises relative to their body size. Young tapirs reach sexual maturity between three and five years of age, with females maturing earlier than males.
Under good conditions, a healthy female tapir can reproduce every two years; a single youngster, called a calf, is born after a gestation of about 13 months. The natural lifespan of a tapir is approximately 25 to 30 years, both in the wild and in zoos. Apart from mothers and their young offspring, tapirs lead almost exclusively solitary lives.
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.) 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.