the.com/tapir
a pig-shaped piano with a tiny trunk and ancestors older than the Andes.
means A large, herbivorous, pig-shaped mammal of Central and South America and Southeast Asia, with a short, flexible, prehensile snout.
from The name comes from Tupí, a language of indigenous Brazilians, who called the animal something like 'tapira' — a word European naturalists carried home and Latinized. The genus name Tapirus simply preserves that native word, so when you say 'tapir' you're still speaking a little Tupí.
- living fossil
- barely changed in 20 million years
- prehensile nose
- grabs leaves like a stubby elephant trunk
- baby camo
- born striped and spotted like a watermelon
- underwater walker
- strolls river bottoms to escape predators
- closest cousins
- horses and rhinos, oddly enough
baird's tapir — largest land mammal in central america, weighs up to 540 pounds, found from mexico to ecuador
malayan tapir — endangered species in southeast asia with distinctive black and white coat, fewer than 2,000 remain in wild
brazilian tapir — largest tapir species at 540 kg, native to south america from venezuela to paraguay