The largest native mammal on the South American continent.
They have thick-haired, bulky bodies, measuring over 2m across and weighing up to 300kg and short legs, reaching up to 1.20 m at their shoulders. Its relatively smaller head has small eyes and erect ears and a short snout. Tapirs are odd-toed hoofed animals like the horses and rhinoceros, with 4 toes in the front  and 3 in the back.

The tapir family consists of 4 species, one kind is native to Asia [T.andicus] and the other 3 exist on the American continent, with two of them still found in Ecuador, the larger Amazonian Tapir [T.terrestris] and the Mountain Tapir [T. pinchaque]. The third one, the Coastal Tapir [T.bairdii] is now believed to be extinct in Ecuador.

Order Family Genus Species

PERISSODACTYLA TAPIRIDAE Tapirus T. terrestris [Amazon T.] / T. pinchaque  [Mountain T.]

Tapirs are plant eaters using their short and flexible snout to pick fruits, leaves and other vegetations. Being fruit eaters, they help to disperse seeds throughout the forest and so are an important part of the ecology. They are good swimmers and like to go into the rivers and lakes, which serve also as a refuge when they feel threatened. They are solitary animals mating once a year in the rainy season. One young is born after a gestation period of 13 months and it stays with the mother for one year.

The larger Amazonian Tapir lives in the Amazon tropical forest up to 1000m above sea level. The smaller Mountain tapir is found from 2000m to 4000m in cloud forest areas and some wooded paramo areas.

Range Habitat Ecuador Status

Venezuela - N. Argentina Trop. and subtr. forests Amazon Jungle [Amazon] Eastern Andes [Mountain] Vulnerable

front                   hind [25 % of actual size]

Tapirs are in danger of disappearing because of habitat destruction, like clear cutting of forests, and being hunted for their delicious meat and their thick skin. The Coastal Tapir, which roamed the coastal tropical forests of Ecuador decades ago, is now gone forever because of those reasons and the Mountain tapir is very much in danger of becoming extinct too. Only the Amazonian tapir has a healthy population in some regions of the Amazon but it is also under pressure. There are now some projects under way into converting this tapir into a domestic animal for meat production and in that way to guarantee its survival.