This is a Malayan tapir. I know because of its white "saddle" marking.
I think tapirs are cooler looking than they are cool in general. This reminds me of a lot of the people I see at school or in the city. They look super cool, but then you find out more about them and you realize that they are just banking on their cool exterior to make up for their kind of lame interior. But anyway, this is the tapir.
Tapirs live in South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia and they can weigh up to 700 lbs! They're most closely related to the horse and rhinoceros (which I guess means the horse and rhinoceros are related as well?) and all four species are endangered due to destruction of their habitats. They also have these crazy snouts that are really flexible, almost like a little elephant trunk.
I guess the only really cool thing about them is that one time a mama tapir attacked a zoo keeper and it turns out they can deliver a pretty nasty bite even though their teeth are for eating leaves.
Man, this was kind of a bust...I promise something more interesting for next time.
3 comments:
I think it's cool that they're that big! I seriously had no idea. I thought they were like, anteater size!
All four types of Tapir may look “cool” but they actually have a vital part in their ecosystem. They are responsible for the spreading of seeds of various berries and plants. There are unfortunately less than two hundred in the wild and over two thousand in captivity. Instead of exploiting them to seem like just another animal, we should be spreading awareness that these beautiful creatures need our help. They are dying because of deforestation and poaching, it’s an unfortunate story but it could change if people only realized how easy it is to educate others about critically endangered animals.
Please don't think that this blog is written with any intention to de-emphasize the importance of any one species, because that is certainly not the place I'm coming from. I'm happy you called me out but I also think it is unrealistically optimistic to say that we could stop deforestation and poaching through mere education. Much greater social, political, and economic changes must occur and this includes focusing on people, the apparent criminal. Since we live in a corporate globalized society that exploits people as much as it does the environment or animals, it is important to see that our conservation efforts go hand in hand with attacking widening global inequalities. Education is a start, but education is not equivalent to action. Also, don't let yourself go as an anonymous voice!
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