Malayan Tapir(Tapirus indicus)
They are also called the Asian tapir, Asiatic tapir, Oriental tapir, Indian tapir, or piebald tapir. The animal is easily identified by its markings, most notably the light-colored patch that extends from its shoulders to its rear end. It is covered in black hair, except for the tips of its ears, which, as with other tapirs, are rimmed with white. This pattern is for camouflage; the disrupted coloration makes it more difficult to recognize it as a tapir, and other animals may mistake it for a large rock rather than prey when it is lying down to sleep.
​The Malayan tapir grows to between 1.8-2.5 m in length, not counting a stubby tail of only 5-10 cm in length, and stands 90-110 cm tall. It typically weighs between 250-320 kg, although some adults can weigh up to 540 kg. The females are usually larger than the males. Like other tapir species, it has a small, stubby tail and a long, flexible proboscis. It has four toes on each front foot and three toes on each back foot. The Malayan tapir has rather poor eyesight, but excellent hearing and sense of smell.
It has a large sagittal crest, a bone running along the middle of the skull that is necessary for muscle attachment. It also possesses unusually positioned orbits, an unusually shaped cranium with the frontal bones elevated, and a retracted nasal incision. All of these modifications to the normal mammal skull are, of course, to make room for the proboscis. This proboscis caused a retraction of bones and cartilage in the face during the evolution of the tapir, and even caused the loss of some cartilages, facial muscles, and the bony wall of the nasal chamber. Malayan tapirs have very poor eyesight, making them rely greatly on their excellent sense of smell and hearing to go about in their everyday lives. They have small, beady eyes with brown irises on either side of their faces. Their eyes are often covered in a blue haze, which is corneal cloudiness thought to be caused by repetitive exposure to light. Corneal cloudiness is a condition in which the cornea starts to lose its transparency. The cornea is necessary for the transmitting and focusing of outside light as it enters the eye, and cloudiness can cause vision loss. This causes the Malayan tapir to have very inadequate vision, both on land and in water, where they spend the majority of their time. Also, as these tapirs are most active at night and since they have poor eyesight, it is harder for them to search for food and avoid predators in the dark.
Habitat
The natural range of this species is now heavily fragmented, occupying parts of south-eastern Asia, from southern Myanmar to south-western Thailand, Malaysia as well as from the Malay Peninsula to Sumatra. Within this territory, Malayan tapirs occur in a wide range of habitats from lowland and hill forests and montane cloud forests to alpine scrubland and grassy openings. They inhabit primary and secondary degraded forests with constant source of water.
Diet
These mammals maintain frugivorous (fruit-based), folivorous (leaf-based) and lignivorous (wood-based) diets. Typical types of food are leaves, buds, growing twigs, tree bark, herbs, low growing succulents, shrubs, fruits, club moss, grass, tubers as well as aquatic vegetation.
Breeding
Malayan tapirs exhibit a monogamus mating system, where each individual has only one mate during the reproductive season, which occurs in May-June. Females yield a single calf (rarely twins) every 2 years, after 390 - 410 days of gestation. Malayan tapirs grow very quickly! Thus, if the newborn baby is healthy, it will be able to stand during the first 1 - 2 hours of its life. The mother begins to suckle its young within 2 - 5 hours at birth. At about 2 weeks old, the calf starts taking solid food. By 3 weeks old, the young tapir is ready to swim. Weaning occurs at 6 - 8 months old, although calves continue living near their mothers until 1 year old. Young tapirs are able to reproduce at about 3 years old.
Population
The IUCN Red List and other sources don’t provide the number of the Malayan tapirs’ total population. According to the IUCN Red List, there are less than 400-500 adult individuals in Sumatra; less than 250 adult individuals in Thailand/Myanmar (around 50-100 of which occur in Thailand); approximately 1,300-1,700 individuals in Malaysia. Overall, Malayan tapirs are currently classified as Endangered (EN) and their numbers continue to decrease.
Threats
Asian tapirs currently suffer from large-scale habitat loss, as a result of various human activities, including agricultural development, cattle grazing and logging. On the other hand, hydroelectric projects often cause flooding within the natural range of this species. Malayan tapirs attract hunters for their meat as well as sport. The thick and rough skin of these mammals serves as material for bridles and whips. Further, Malayan tapirs are sometimes captured in steel wire snares, intended to catch wild pigs. And finally, all the above-mentioned factors are compounded by a very low birth rate and heavily fragmented range. As a result, isolated populations are unable to recover losses and are exposed to hunting.
Conservation
The species is legally protected in all range states and the habitat of large parts of the range is protected, including several National Parks in Thailand, Myanmar, Peninsula Malaysia and Sumatra. The impact of habitat reduction/destruction on the tapir is not fully understood and needs further investigation. It is listed on CITES Appendix I. Indonesia has already developed a National Tapir Conservation Action Plan (2013), but it is yet to be effectively implemented across its local range.
By November 2014, Malaysia began the process of developing a National Tapir Conservation Action Plan. It is anticipated that the final document will be completed by mid-2015, after which it will be ratified by the Malaysian Government. Thailand does not have any national action or conservation plan for Malay Tapirs.