27th April: World Tapir Day

Today is world Tapir day. Time for ten facts about these unusual creatures:

1. There are four species of tapir: Baird’s tapir, Mountain tapir, Malayan tapir and Lowland tapir. They are all endangered except the Lowland tapir, which is vulnerable.
2. They eat plants and are important to ecosystems because they defecate seeds as they wander around. The seeds sometimes get stuck around their backsides and germinate there, giving the tapir a green bum.
3. They are similar in shape and size to a Pig, but their nearest living relatives are actually Horses and Rhinos.
4. Tapirs weigh between 500 and 800 lbs (225 to 360 kg). They can grow to over three and a half feet (1m 10cm) tall. The average lifespan of a tapir is 25 to 30 years.
5. A group of tapirs is called a “candle.”
6. The tapir's nose is prehensile and can be used to grab leaves. It has another use, too - tapirs are excellent swimmers and sometimes feed on aquatic plants. When swimming, or walking along the bottom of a river, they can use their noses as snorkels.
7. A tapir's penis is huge and also prehensile, meaning it can grip its mate with it to ensure insemination. (It looks rather like the tongues of the vampires in the TV show The Strain.)
8. They may come across as peaceful vegetarians, but they can be vicious. In 1998, a female tapir at the Oklahoma City Zoo bit off a zookeeper’s arm at the bicep when he entered her enclosure when she had a young calf.
9. Tapirs have four toes on their front feet, and three toes on their back feet.
10. In Chinese and Japanese folklore, tapirs are thought to eat people's nightmares.