Mammals
Lowland Tapir
Tapirus terrestris · also called South American tapir, Brazilian tapir, lowland tapir, anta
The lowland tapir looks like something that wandered out of the Miocene — a heavy, hump-backed browser with a rubbery little trunk and an oddly small head, unchanged in its essentials for tens of millions of years. It is the largest land animal in South America, a strong swimmer, and one of the most important tree-planters in the rainforest.
Overview
Lowland tapirs live across tropical South America east of the Andes, in rainforest, wooded savanna, and wetlands, always near water. They are mostly nocturnal and solitary, moving along well-worn trails, browsing fruit, leaves, and aquatic plants, and relying heavily on smell and hearing — their eyesight is poor. Threatened, a tapir bolts, often straight into a river.
An ancient design
Tapirs are odd-toed ungulates — relatives of horses and rhinos — and the modern form is around 20–30 million years old. Five species survive, four in the Americas and one in Southeast Asia, the remnant of a once far wider range.
The trunk
The tapir’s short proboscis, made from a fused nose and upper lip, is a grasping tool for pulling in leaves and fruit and a snorkel for swimming. Scent drawn through it is the animal’s primary sense.
The forest’s gardener
Lowland tapirs eat huge amounts of fruit and carry large seeds long distances before depositing them in dung, often in forest gaps where they can grow. Forests that lose their tapirs shift toward smaller-seeded trees over time, with measurable effects on forest structure and carbon storage.
Status
The lowland tapir is Vulnerable and declining. It is hunted for meat across its range, killed on roads, and losing habitat to cattle, soy, and logging, and it recovers slowly — a female produces one calf every two to three years after a 13-month pregnancy.
Lowland Tapir: common questions
What is a tapir related to?
Tapirs are odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls), which means their closest living relatives are horses and rhinoceroses, not pigs or hippos despite the resemblance. The group was far more diverse in the past. Tapirs themselves are considered "living fossils" because the modern body plan appears in the fossil record around 20 to 30 million years ago and has changed relatively little since. There are four to five living species — the lowland, mountain, and Baird's tapirs in the Americas and the Malayan tapir in Southeast Asia — a distribution that reflects the group's much wider ancient range.
What is the trunk for?
The tapir's short, mobile proboscis is formed from an extended, fused nose and upper lip, and it works as a grasping tool. The tapir uses it to pull leaves, shoots, and fruit toward its mouth, to probe and select food, and to investigate its surroundings by smell — scent is its most important sense. It is also useful in water — a swimming tapir can raise the tip above the surface and use it as a snorkel. It is not nearly as long or dexterous as an elephant's trunk, but it works on the same principle.
Why is the tapir important for the rainforest?
Lowland tapirs are among the most important seed dispersers in Neotropical forests, sometimes called "the gardeners of the forest." They eat large quantities of fruit and travel long distances, then deposit the seeds — often large seeds that few other animals can swallow whole — in dung piles far from the parent tree, frequently in gaps and clearings where seedlings can grow. Studies have shown that forests losing their tapirs shift toward smaller-seeded, lower-carbon tree species over time, so tapir loss has knock-on effects on forest composition and even carbon storage.
Are tapirs dangerous to people?
Normally tapirs are shy and flee, usually crashing away through the undergrowth or into water. But they are large, powerful animals, and a cornered tapir, a mother with a calf, or a habituated animal that has been fed can bite seriously — tapir bites have severed fingers and caused deep wounds, and there have been rare human deaths, usually involving captive or provoked animals. In the wild the far bigger danger runs the other way — tapirs are hunted for meat throughout their range, and they are frequently killed on roads.