Background

The Malayan Tapir (Tapirus indicus) is an animal which rated by International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) in IUCN Red List of Threatened Species with a endangered conservation status. The Malayan Tapir or Asian Tapir have the largest size among the other three species of tapir, which are Baird’s Tapir, Mountain Tapir and Brazilian Tapir.








Baird’s Tapirs are distributed in Central America and northern South America country. In El Salvador, the Tapir almost have been extinct. In Ecuador, the presence of the Tapir is unconfirmed. Baird’s Tapir has a distinctive cream-colored marking on its face and throat and a dark spot on each cheek, behind and below the eye. The Mountain Tapir normally stay in the cloud forests and Páramo of the Andes in Colombia, Ecuador and north of Peru. During the wet season, Mountain Tapirs tend to inhabit the forests of the Andes, while during the drier months, they migrate to the Páramo where there are fewer biting insects to pester them. The South American Tapir (Brazilian Tapir) can be found near water in the Amazon Rainforest and River Basin in South America, east if the Andes. Its range stretches from Venezuela, Colombia, and Guianas in north to Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, in the south, to Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in the west. . The Brazilian Tapir often sinks to the bottom of a stream and walks along the riverbed to feed



After introducing the relative of Malayan Tapir, Malayan Tapir also called as “cipan”, “tenuk” or “badak tampong” in Malay. Malayan Tapir ranged only in Asia region. In scientific term, Malayan Tapir also called as Tapirus indicus. Tapirus is a Latinized corruption of tapyra which refer to Tupi (the Tupis are an aboriginal tribe from amazon). Indicus (Latin) means of India. This name is misleading as this ungulate does not live in India, and was probably meant to refer to the East Indies (Malay Peninsula). Due to its larger in size, different range and unique colour, this tapir sometimes places in the genus Acrocodia.



To study the origin of the Tapir, we roll back the time to 55.4-48.6 mya during the Eocene epoch. Researchers believe the first Tapir appeared as Heptodon. Heptodon is an extinct genus of tapir-type herbivore of the family Helaletidae endemic to North America during the Eocene epoch. It lived from 55.4-48.6 mya, existing for approximately 6.8 million years. Heptodon appeared very similar to modern tapir in appearance, but were about half the size and without the proboscis. The tapir family is old by mammal standards: the earliest fossil tapir dates to the early Oligocene, and Eocene rocks from as long as 55 million years ago contain a wide range of tapir-like animals. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed ungulates: horses and rhinoceroses. The first true tapirs appeared in the Oligocene, and by the Miocene, such genera as Miotapirus were almost indistinguishable from the extant species. It is believed that Asian and American tapirs diverged around 20-30 million years ago, and the tapirs migrated from North America to South America around 3 million years ago as part of the Great American Interchange. For much of their history, tapirs were spread across the northern hemisphere, where they became extinct as recently as 10,000 years ago. The species T. polkensis became extinct during the Miocene in Asia, while T.merriami, veroensis, copei, and californicus became extinct during the Pleistocene in North America. In addition, It is also believed by some scientists that the tapir may have evolved from the Hyracotherium (a primitive horse).