How long do tapirs live

Tropical lowland swamp, montane and hill forests, prefers dense, primary forests. Malayan Tapir. Tapirus indicus. Download Pdf. Barrel-Shaped Body Tapirs have a thick heavy barrel-shaped body ideal for crashing through dense forest vegetation.

Physical Description Malayan tapirs are six to eight feet 1. They weigh pounds kg ; females are larger than males. They stand three to three and a half feet cm tall. They have a distinctive color pattern — the front and back parts are black and the midsection is white or gray. Their nose and upper lip are extended to form a short prehensile snout. They have a large barrel-shaped body. Diet What Does It Eat?

At the zoo : Grain, alfalfa, apples, bananas, carrots, sweet potatoes, monkey chow. Malayan tapirs show intraspecific tolerance and have overlapping home ranges.

Densities range from 0. On average, individuals travel about 0. The only vocalizations of Malayan tapirs are whistles, clicks, and hiccup-like noises, often made in response to fear or pain, as an appeasement to conspecifics, as a warning call, or during mating. They have an acute sense of smell and good hearing with large, round ears. They often perform visual or scent cues during mating rituals, sometimes performing flehmen to better detect pheromones.

Individuals smell and touch each other when first meeting. Barongi, ; Gilmore, Malayan tapirs are frugivores, folivores, and lignivores. They are selective browsers, selecting high quality food when available. The diet consists of leaves Baccaurea parviflora and Symplocis crassipes , buds, growing twigs, bark, herbs Curculigo latifolia and Homalomena deltoidea , low growing succulents Homalomena species and Phyllagathis rotundifolia , shrubs Lasianthus maingayi and Helicia attenuata , fruits Crescentia alata and Virola oleifera , club moss Selanginella willdenonii , grasses, tubers, and aquatic plants.

Although they are selective browsers, they feed on more than species of plants and do not concentrate feeding in any particular location. Instead, they move in a zigzag fashion feeding on one plant and then moving on to another, often covering great distances.

Malayan tapirs are non-ruminant and hind-gut fermenters with an enlarged cecum and a simple stomach. Some seeds that they ingest are not digested and may be dispersed long distances from their origin. Fruit tends to be a large portion of the diet of the species, especially considering they are hind-gut fermenters which generally cope better with high-fiber, low-quality forage, although the relative importance varies between populations and habitats.

Malayan tapirs eat between 4 and 5 percent of their body weight each day, while pregnant, lactating, or young members of the species may require a higher intake. They may also ingest large amounts of a plant containing a strong liquifying agent permitting easy passage of stools, most likely to assist the smooth functioning of its simple digestive system.

The proboscis plays an important role in browsing, used to pluck leaves from branches and place them into the animal's mouth. In order to obtain desired branches or leaves, thin saplings less than 3. Additionally, Malayan tapirs crave salt and travel upwards of 5 km to seek out salt licks. Barongi, ; Clauss, et al. Tigers Panthera tigris and leopards Panthera pardus are the major natural predators of Malayan tapirs; however, they are not often preyed upon.

The black and white pattern of the adults disrupts the body lines and makes them more difficult to recognize as potential prey.

The white saddle does not suggest the form of the entire animal since the rest of the individual remains obscure in the dark. If an individual is attacked, it will run away and find the nearest source of water to escape the chase.

They have thickened skin, up to 2. If a predator does attach to the neck, the tapir will attempt to bash the assailant against a tree. Humans Homo sapiens sometimes hunt tapirs for food. Fruit constitutes a large portion of the tapir diet and they help disperse the seeds of the fruit they eat.

They may be the key dispersers of some communities of plants. Malayan tapirs may transport seeds both by swallowing them and defecating later and by eating fruit and spitting out the seeds.

Seed dispersal may be up to a number of kilometers, generating a complex and remote seed shadow, and may disperse large numbers of seeds. Some seeds germinate faster after passing through a tapir gut. Malayan tapirs host a number of ectoparasites, endoparasites, protozoal enteric parasites, and hemoparasites.

These include protozoan blood parasites, such as Babesia , vampire moths Calyptra eustrigata , ticks, such as Amblyomma testudinarium , mites, such as Sarcoptes tapiri , ciliate protozoans Ciliophorma , such as g.

Balantidium species, flagellated protozoans Mastigophora , such as g. Giargia species; parasitic unicellular eukaryotes, such as trypanosomes ; and parasitic flatworms, such as trematodes. Ramsay and Zainuddin, ; Vroege and Zwart, Malayan tapirs has been hunted for meat by aborigines, although that is rare now.

Tapirs are seed dispersers and benefit native plant communities. In Southwest Sumatra, Malayan tapirs are considered a problem species because they tend to strip the bark from rubber trees. In West Sumatra, they have been reported eating watermelon and cucumber crops. However, these are the only occurrences of such actions and this remains the only possible negative economic importance.

Otherwise, the species has no adverse effects on humans. The most serious threat to Malayan tapir survival is that of forest conversion for agriculture and human settlement. During these hours they follow tunnel-like paths, worn through the heavy brush by many a tapir footstep, to reach water holes and lush feeding grounds. As they roam and defecate they deposit the seeds they have consumed and promote future plant growth. Though they appear densely built, tapirs are at home in the water and often submerge to cool off.

They are excellent swimmers and can even dive to feed on aquatic plants. They also wallow in mud, perhaps to remove pesky ticks from their thick hides. New World tapirs generally live in the forests and grasslands of Central and South America. A notable exception is the mountain or woolly tapir, which lives high in the Andes Mountains. Woolly tapirs, named for their warm and protective coat, are the smallest of all tapirs. The world's biggest tapir is found in the Old World—Southeast Asia.

The black-and-white Malay tapir can grow to pounds. It inhabits the forests and swamps of Malaysia and Sumatra. All rights reserved. Common Name: Tapirs. They use a doggy paddle stroke or use the bottom of the lake to propel themselves along. The Malayan tapir is the only extant species found in Asia, and is distinctively black and white which helps to break up its shape in the forest.

Tapirs are pregnant for around 13 months, and give birth to only one calf at a time. A healthy female tapir can reproduce every two years. Baby tapirs are born covered in black, yellow and white strips and spots, which serves as camouflage against predation during these vulnerable first few months.