Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Tapirus ter­restris can be found pre­dom­i­nantly in Brazil, but its range cov­ers much of South Amer­ica’s trop­i­cal forests. It ranges from north­ern Ar­gentina to Venezuela, but is ab­sent from Chile and lo­ca­tions west of the An­dean Cordillera. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Nor­ton and Ash­ley, 2004; Nowak, 1999; Padilla and Dowler, 1994; Wil­son and Reeder, 2005)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Brazil­ian tapirs pre­fer trop­i­cal mon­tane forests, but are also pre­sent in swamps and low­land forests. It can be found from sea level up to 4500 me­ters in el­e­va­tion. They are adept moun­tain climbers and some­times cre­ate paths to larger bod­ies of water. They pre­fer to live close to water, es­pe­cially rivers, and are com­fort­able swim­mers. The high­est pop­u­la­tion den­si­ties are found in areas with lush veg­e­ta­tion and 2,000 to 4,000 mm of rain­fall per year. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Hus­son, 1978; Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• forest
• rainforest
• mountains

• Wetlands
• swamp

• Other Habitat Features
• riparian

• Range elevation

  0 to 4500 m

  0.00 to 14763.78 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Adult mass of Brazil­ian tapirs ranges from 150 to 250 kg. Shoul­der height varies from 77 cm to 108 cm, while body length can reach 221 cm in fe­males and 204 cm in males. Their skulls have a promi­nent sagit­tal crest that gives the top of the head a hump­like pro­jec­tion ex­tend­ing from the eyes to the neck, and a short mane fol­lows the sagit­tal crest pro­jec­tion. Adults are dark brown to red, and ju­ve­niles are brown with hor­i­zon­tal white stripes, which fade after seven months. Brazil­ian tapirs have hooves and a pro­nounced pro­boscis. The pro­boscis is made up en­tirely of soft tis­sue, and the snout has sig­nif­i­cantly re­duced bone and car­ti­lage com­pared to other un­gu­lates. The mo­lars are lophodont, and the den­tal for­mula is 3/3, 1/1, 4/3, 3/3 = 42. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Nowak, 1999; Padilla and Dowler, 1994; Wit­mer, et al., 1999; Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Lon­don, 1867)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range mass

  150 to 250 kg

  330.40 to 550.66 lb

• Range length

  204 to 220 cm

  80.31 to 86.61 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

The mat­ing sys­tem of Tapirus ter­restris has not yet been de­ter­mined. When fe­males are sex­u­ally re­cep­tive, males com­pete for the right to mate by bit­ing one an­other on the feet, sug­gest­ing polyg­yny. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

Ges­ta­tion in Brazil­ian tapirs typ­i­cally lasts for 380 days, but ranges from 335 to 439 days. Es­trous oc­curs every 50 to 80 days and lasts for 48 hours. Most fe­males be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture be­tween 2 and 3 years of age. The old­est fe­male recorded to have given birth in cap­tiv­ity was 28 years old. Brazil­ian tapirs breed year round. They have 1 off­spring at a time, which weighs from 3.2 to 5.8 kg at birth. Wean­ing is com­plete by 6 to 8 months of age, and most off­spring are in­de­pen­dent by 18 months of age. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Nowak, 1999; Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
• viviparous

• Breeding season

  Mating in Brazilian tapirs occurs year-round.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 2

• Average number of offspring

  1

• Average number of offspring

  1

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  335 to 439 days

• Average gestation period

  383 days

• Range weaning age

  6 to 10 months

• Average weaning age

  6-8 months

• Range time to independence

  10 to 18 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  23 to 36 months

• Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
  Sex: male

  1095 days

  AnAge

Fe­male Brazil­ian tapirs nurse young for 6 to 10 months and con­tinue to live with young for an ad­di­tional 1 to 8 months. Males pro­vide no parental care to off­spring. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Nowak, 1999; Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Parental Investment
• precocial
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion avail­able con­cern­ing the lifes­pan of Tapirus ter­restris. Typ­i­cally, it lives for 35 years in cap­tiv­ity, and there is no in­for­ma­tion re­gard­ing the lifes­pan of wild in­di­vid­u­als. (Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  35 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  35 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  30.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  35.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  35.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Brazil­ian tapirs are typ­i­cally soli­tary, and al­though they are not ex­clu­sively noc­tur­nal, they tend to keep to the shel­ter of the for­est dur­ing the day and come out to feed at night. They are often seen in pairs dur­ing mat­ing sea­son and when fe­males travel with off­spring. Brazil­ian tapirs have lim­ited eye­sight, but strong ol­fac­tory per­cep­tion. Al­though they are usu­ally shy, they are ag­gres­sive while com­pet­ing for mates or de­fend­ing ter­ri­to­ries. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Padilla and Dowler, 1994; Wil­son and Reeder, 2005)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

There is no in­for­ma­tion avail­able re­gard­ing the home ranges of Brazil­ian tapirs.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Brazil­ian tapirs pro­duce sev­eral vo­cal­iza­tions. A shriek­ing sound is used to ex­press fear, dis­tress, or pain. Click­ing noises may be used to iden­tify them­selves to con­specifics, par­tic­u­larly dur­ing mat­ing sea­son. They show ag­gres­sion with a nasal snort, and when ir­ri­tated, it makes a puff­ing noise. Brazil­ian tapirs also use meth­ods of chem­i­cal com­mu­ni­ca­tion, as they uri­nate and use fa­cial glands to de­mar­cate ter­ri­to­r­ial bound­aries. (Hun­saker and Hahn, 1965; Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Brazil­ian tapirs browse at night, eat­ing fruit, leaves, and other plant ma­te­r­ial. Pre­ferred for­age plants in­clude mom­bins, which pro­duces fruit sim­i­lar to large plums; huito, which pro­duces large berry-like fruit; and moriche palm, which pro­duces palm fruit. (Nowak, 1999)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • folivore
  • frugivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• wood, bark, or stems
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• fruit

Pre­da­tion

Other than hu­mans, the tapir’s main preda­tor is the jaguar. They are some­times taken by croc­o­dylians. When alarmed by preda­tors, tapirs flee to water or the near­est brush. If cor­nered, how­ever, a tapir runs di­rectly at its preda­tor. Its semi-noc­tur­nal ten­den­cies may help de­crease risk of pre­da­tion. (Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Known Predators

  • jaguar (Panthera onca)
  • humans (Homo sapiens)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Brazil­ian tapirs are browsers and graz­ers. They are ex­cep­tion­ally com­mon in cer­tain area of their ge­o­graphic range and make up a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of the total bio­mass in these com­mu­ni­ties. They are fru­giv­o­rous and are po­ten­tial seed dis­persers of many im­por­tant fruit trees through­out their ge­o­graphic range. Their di­ges­tion gen­er­ally leaves in­gested seeds un­dam­aged, as is the case with fruit from assai palms and epena. Brazil­ian tapirs are host to a num­ber of par­a­sites in­clud­ing sev­eral species of ticks (Haemo­physalis jux­takochi and Am­bly­omma ovale), nu­mer­ous species of cil­i­ated pro­to­zoa (Buisonella tapiri, Ble­pharo­co­rys car­dionu­cle­ata, Bal­an­tid­ium coli, and Pro­to­tapirella in­testi­nalis), and round­worms (Neo­mur­shidia mono­stichia and Physocepha­las ni­tidu­lans). Bur­row­ing mites some­times cause sar­cop­tic mange. (Eisen­berg and Hub­bard Red­ford, 1999; Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Brazil­ian tapirs are hunted for hide and meat, pro­vid­ing a sig­nif­i­cant amount of pro­tein to the diets of var­i­ous rural pop­u­la­tions. They have been do­mes­ti­cated in Brazil and taught to pull plows and allow chil­dren to ride them. They are also kept in nu­mer­ous zoos across the globe. (Padilla and Dowler, 1994)

• Positive Impacts
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of Tapirus ter­restris on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Tapirus ter­restris is clas­si­fied as Vul­ner­a­ble by the IUCN's Red List of Threat­ened Species. Al­though more stud­ies are needed to de­ter­mine cur­rent pop­u­la­tion den­si­ties and trends, it is widely thought that T. ter­restris is de­clin­ing through­out its ge­o­graphic range. Major threats in­clude over hunt­ing, com­pe­ti­tion with live­stock, and habi­tat loss through de­for­esta­tion. It oc­curs in nu­mer­ous pro­tected areas through­out its range, and al­though it is legally pro­tected from hunt­ing, these laws are rarely en­forced and have proven in­ef­fec­tive. The Con­ven­tion on In­ter­na­tional Trade in En­dan­gered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) lists T. ter­restris under Ap­pen­dix II, and the species is listed as En­dan­gered by the United States Fish & Wildlife Ser­vice. (Naveda, et al., 2010.4)

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Vulnerable
  More information

• US Federal List

  Endangered

• CITES

  Appendix II

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Saman­tha Lux­en­berg (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, John Berini (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web Staff.

Ref­er­ences

Eisen­berg, J., K. Hub­bard Red­ford. 1999. Mam­mals of The Neotrop­ics: The Cen­tral Neotrop­ics. Chicago: Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.

Fer­rero, B., J. Nor­iega. 2007. "A new tapir from the upper Pleis­tocene of Ar­gentina: phy­lo­ge­netic re­marks on the neotrop­i­cal fam­ily di­ver­si­fi­ca­tion and pa­le­oen­vi­ron­men­tal in­fer­ences" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 10, 2011 at http://​www.​bioone.​org.​proxy.​lib.​umich.​edu/​doi/​abs/​10.​1671/​0272-4634%282007%2927%5B504%3AANUPTF%5D2.​0.​CO%3B2.

Fragoso, J., J. Huff­man. 2000. "Seed-dis­per­sal and seedling re­cruit­ment pat­terns by the last Neotrop­i­cal megafau­nal el­e­ment in Ama­zo­nia, the tapir" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 10, 2011 at http://​journals.​cambridge.​org.​proxy.​lib.​umich.​edu/​action/​displayFulltext?​type=1&​fid=60866&​jid=TRO&​volumeId=16&​issueId=03&​aid=60865&​bodyId=&​membershipNumber=&​societyETOCSession=.

Holanda, E., M. Coz­zuol. 2006. "New record of Tapirus from the late Pleis­tocene of south­west­ern Ama­zo­nia, Brazil" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed March 10, 2011 at http://​www.​sbpbrasil.​org/​revista/​edicoes/​9_​2/​RBP9-2-cozzuol.​pdf.

Hun­saker, D., T. Hahn. 1965. Vo­cal­iza­tion of South Amer­i­can Tapir Tapirus Ter­restris. An­i­mal Be­hav­ior, 13/1: 69.

Hus­son, A. 1978. The Mam­mals of Suri­name. Nether­lands: Brill.

Naveda, A., D. Tor­res, B. de Thoisy, C. Richard-Hansen, L. Salas, R. Wal­lance, S. Chalukian, S. de Bus­tos. 2010.4. "Tapirus ter­restris" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed May 25, 2011 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​details/​21474/​0.

Nor­ton, J., M. Ash­ley. 2004. Ge­netic vari­abil­ity and pop­u­la­tion struc­ture among wild Baird's Tapirs. An­i­mal Con­ser­va­tion, 7: 211-220.

Nowak, R. 1999. Mam­mals of the Wold, Vol­ume 1. Bal­ti­more: John Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Padilla, M., R. Dowler. 1994. Tapirus ter­restris. Mam­malian Species, 481: 1-8. Ac­cessed March 31, 2011 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​350410.

Salas, L., T. Fuller. 1996. "Diet of the low­land tapir (Tapirus ter­restris) in the Tabaro River val­ley, south­ern Venezuela" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 10, 2011 at http://​article.​pubs.​nrc-cnrc.​gc.​ca.​proxy.​lib.​umich.​edu/​RPAS/​rpv?​hm=HInit&​journal=cjz&​volume=74&​calyLang=eng&​afpf=z96-159.​pdf.

Thoisy, B., A. Goncalves da Silva, M. Ruiz-Gar­cia, A. Tapia, O. Ramirez, M. Arana, V. Quse, C. Paz-y-Mino, M. To­bler, C. Pe­draza, A. Lavergne. 2010. "Pop­u­la­tion his­tory, phy­lo­geog­ra­phy, and con­ser­va­tion ge­net­ics of the last Neotrop­i­cal mega-her­bi­vore, the low­land tapir (Tapirus ter­restris)" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 10, 2011 at http://​www.​biomedcentral.​com.​proxy.​lib.​umich.​edu/​1471-2148/​10/​278.

Trolle, M., A. Noss, J. Cordeiro. 2008. "Brazil­ian tapir den­sity in the Pan­tanal: A com­par­i­son of sys­tem­atic cam­era-trap­ping and line-tran­sect sur­veys" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 10, 2011 at http://​onlinelibrary.​wiley.​com.​proxy.​lib.​umich.​edu/​doi/​10.​1111/​j.​1744-7429.​2007.​00350.​x/​pdf.

Wil­son, D., D. Reeder. 2005. Mam­mal Species of The World: A Tax­o­nomic and Ge­o­graphic Ref­er­ence. Bal­ti­more: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Wit­mer, L., S. Samp­son, N. Solou­nias. 1999. The Pro­boscis of Tapirs: a Case Study in Novel Nar­ial Anatomy. Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 249: 250-266.

Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Lon­don, 1867. Pro­ceed­ings. Lon­don: Zo­o­log­i­cal So­ci­ety of Lon­don.