Tapirs

Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk (proboscis). Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America and Southeast Asia. They are one of three extant branches of Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates), alongside equines and 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. 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.

Name

The term ''tapir'' comes from the Portuguese-language words , , which themselves trace their origins back to Old Tupi, specifically the term . This word, according to Eduardo de Almeida Navarro, referred in a more precise manner to the species '' Tapirus terrestris''.

Species

There are four widely recognized extant species of tapir, all in the genus ''Tapirus'' of the family Tapiridae. They are the South American tapir, the Malayan tapir, Baird's tapir, and the mountain tapir. In 2013, a group of researchers said they had identified a fifth species of tapir, the 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.''

Extant species

The four species are all classified on the IUCN Red List as either Endangered or Vulnerable. The tapirs have a number of extinct relatives in the superfamily Tapiroidea. The closest extant relatives of the tapirs are the other odd-toed ungulates, which include horses, wild asses, zebras and rhinoceroses.

Extinct species

During the Late Pleistocene, several other species inhabited North America, including '' Tapirus veroensis'', native to the southern and eastern United States (with its northernmost records being New York State), and '' Tapirus merriami'' and '' Tapirus californicus'', native to Western North America. These became extinct during the Quaternary extinction event around 12,000 years ago, along with most of the other large mammals of the Americas, co-inciding with the first arrival of humans to the continent. '' 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. Many primitive tapirs were originally classified under ''Palaeotapirus'' including members of '' Paratapirus'' and '' Plesiotapirus'', but the original diagnostic material of the genus was too poor to characterize, leading to included species being moved to new genera.

General appearance

Size varies between types, but most tapirs are about long, stand about high at the shoulder, and weigh between . 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,Gorog, A. (2001)
''Tapirus terrestris''
Animal Diversity Web. Retrieved June 19, 2006. and males have long penises relative to their body size.

Physical characteristics

The proboscis of the tapir is a highly flexible organ, able to move in all directions, allowing the animals to grab foliage that would otherwise be out of reach. Tapirs often exhibit the flehmen response, a posture in which they raise their snouts and show their teeth to detect scents. This response is frequently exhibited by bulls sniffing for signs of other males or females in oestrus in the area. The length of the proboscis varies among species; Malayan tapirs have the longest snouts and Brazilian tapirs have the shortest. The evolution of tapir probosces, made up almost entirely of soft tissues rather than bony internal structures, gives the Tapiridae skull a unique form in comparison to other perissodactyls, with a larger sagittal crest, orbits positioned more rostrally, a posteriorly telescoped cranium, and a more elongated and retracted nasoincisive incisure.

File:Malayan Tapir Skull.jpg, Malayan tapir skull
File:Bairds Tapir Skull.jpg, Baird's tapir skull
File:Brazilian Tapir Skull.jpg, South American tapir skull
File:Mountain Tapir Skull.jpg, Mountain tapir skull

Tapirs have brachyodont, or low-crowned teeth, that lack cementum. Their dental formula is:
Totaling 42 to 44 teeth, this dentition is closer to that of equids, which may differ by one less canine, than their other perissodactyl relatives, rhinoceroses. Their incisors are chisel-shaped, with the third large, conical upper incisor separated by a short gap from the considerably smaller canine. A much longer gap is found between the canines and premolars, the first of which may be absent. Tapirs are lophodonts, and their cheek teeth have distinct lophs (ridges) between protocones, paracones, metacones and hypocones.

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. 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.

Life cycle

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 young, called a calf, is born after a gestation of about 13 months.Tapir , San Diego Zoo Animals
The natural lifespan of a tapir is about 25 to 30 years, both in the wild and in zoos.Morris, Dale (March 2005)
"Face to face with big nose."
''BBC Wildlife''. pp. 36–37. 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. 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.

Tapirs are largely nocturnal and crepuscular, although the smaller mountain tapir of the Andes is generally more active during the day than its congeners. They have monocular vision.

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

File:Malayan Tapir Sitting.jpg, An adult Malayan tapir sitting
File:TapirAtSDZ.jpg, Adult Malayan tapir exhibiting the flehmen response
File:Tapir hooves.jpg, The undersides of the front feet (left, with four toes) and back feet (right, with three toes) of a Malayan tapir at rest
File:Tapirbaby.jpg, A baby South American tapir, with spots and stripes characteristic of all juvenile tapirs
File:Tapirus veroensis 01.jpg, Tooth from the extinct ''Tapirus veroensis'', 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 jaguars, crocodiles, anacondas, and tigers. The creatures are also able to run fairly quickly, considering their size and cumbersome appearance, finding shelter in the thick undergrowth of the forest or in water. Hunting for meat and hides has substantially reduced their numbers and, more recently, habitat loss has resulted in the conservation watch-listing of all four species; the Brazilian tapir is classified as vulnerable, and Baird's tapir, the mountain tapir, and the Malayan tapir are endangered. According to 2022 study published in the '' Neotropical Biology and Conservation'', the 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.

Evolution and natural history

Tapirs originated from the " tapiroids", a group of primitive perissodactyls that inhabited North America and Asia during the Eocene epoch, with tapirs probably originating from the family Helaletidae. The oldest known members of the family Tapiridae such as '' Protapirus'' are known from the Early Oligocene of Europe. The oldest representatives of the modern genus ''Tapirus'' appeared in Europe during the Mid-Miocene, with ''Tapirus'' dispersing into Asia and North America by the late Miocene. ''Tapirus'' became extinct in Europe around the end of the Pliocene

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