Tapir, The Animals Endemic Indonesia

Tapirs are herbivorous animals that feed on young foliage along the forests or riverside. Tapirs have a pig-like shape, rhinoceros-like ears and a long muzzle resembling a pangolin, whilst mooing more like birds than mammals. Tapir is a solitary animal, except in the breeding season. The activity is more at night (nocturnal). Feeding activities are usually done while still moving on in a sedentary path. The range of tapir ranges is very wide as they tend to walk away to find a location rich in mineral salts.

Species

Taxonomically, tapirs are grouped into the order Perisodactyla and Tapiridae family. There are four types of tapirs that still exist today. Three of them can be found in South America (Tapirus bairdii, Tapirus pinchaque and Tapirus terrestris) and only one spread in Southeast Asia (Tapirus indicus). Therefore the existence of tapirs is often used as one of the proofs of separation theory of the continent.

Tapir spreads in Southeast Asia include the southern part of Burma, southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia. Paleontological evidence indicates that the former tapir spreads include Java and Sumatra. But now in Indonesia, tapir can only be found in Sumatra, and even then only on the southern part of Lake Toba to Lampung. There is only one record of the existence of a tapir in the northern part of Lake Toba in Pangkalan Berandan. Tapirs are commonly found in lowland forests, but some records indicate their presence in the area to a height of 2000 m, as in Gunung Tujuh (Kerinci Seblat National Park). Tapirs can be found in primary, secondary, mixed, rubber plantations. Some records indicate its presence in oil palm plantations and across residential areas or camp officers at PHPA.

Description

Adult tapir can have a body length up to 225 cm. Another body shape that characterizes tapirs is its longitudinal nose resembling a short trunk. This nose is always brought to the ground when walking. Tapir relies more on smell and hearing in living his life. Some experts claim that this animal has a weak vision. In addition to having a unique body color, tapirs have their own uniqueness on the number of toes. On the front foot tapir has four fingers while on the hind legs only three.

Food

The main food of tapirs is the young leaves that are selectively snatched away from the tongue. Most are derived from shrubs or small trees, such as from the family Rubiaceae and Euphorbiaceae. In addition tapirs also eat fruits scattered on the floor of the forest such as jackfruit, watermelon, and durian. Therefore, tapirs play a significant role in the process of forest regeneration, dispersal, or enhancing the dynamics and stratification of the lower layers of the forest.

Tapir asia

Tapir asia (Tapirus indicus) is one type of tapir. Asian tapirs are the largest of the four types of tapirs and the only ones from Asia. The scientific name indicus refers to the East Indies, which is a natural habitat of this type. In Sumatra tapirs are generally called tenuk or seladang, gindol, pig alu, ayer horses, horse rimbu, horse arau, marba, cipan, and sipan.

Description

Asian tapirs are easily recognizable from the character of a bright "saddle" from the shoulders to the buttocks. The feathers on the other side of her body are black except for the tip of her ears that are white like the other tapirs. This color pattern is useful for camouflage: the chaotic color makes it look like a tapir, another animal may think it is a big rock instead of a prey when the tapir lies down or sleeps.

Asian tapirs grow all the way between 1.8 to 2.4 m (5 feet 11 inches to 7 feet 10 inches), with a height of between 90 to 107 cm (2 feet 11 inches to 3 feet 6 inches). These animals typically weigh between 250 and 320 kg (550 to 710 pounds), although some adults may weigh up to 540 kg (1,190 lb). Female female tapirs are typically larger than the male Asian tapirs. Like other types of tapir tail short fat and long and flexible trunk. On each front of his foot were four nails and on each hind leg there were three nails. Tapir Asia's eyesight is rather bad but its sense of hearing and smell is very sharp.

Life cycle

The Asian tapir pregnant period is about 400 days, after which a child is born weighing 6.8 kg (15 pounds). Asian tapirs are the largest at birth compared to other types of tapirs and grow faster than other types of tapirs. Young tapirs of all kinds with brown hair and white stripes, patterns that enable it to hide effectively in the shadows of the forest. The pattern in this baby changes to an adult tapir color pattern between four and seven months after birth. Tapirs are weaned between the ages of 6 and 8 months and these animals become adults by the age of three. Breeding bases occur in April, May Or June. Female tapirs usually give birth to one child every two years. Asian tapirs can live up to 30 years in both the wild and the confinement.

Recent interest has prompted biological engineers to try to create dwarf versions of tapirs. They believe that there is a market for dwarf tapirs as pets in the United States.

Behavior

Asian tapirs are primarily solitary animals, marking large terraces on land as territory or territory, although this area usually overlaps with other individual domains. Tapirs mark their territories by pissing on plants and they often follow other paths from which they have planted plants.

The animal is herbivorous, it feeds on the tender tubers and leaves of more than 115 species of plants (there are about 30 of which are especially preferred), slowly moving in the forest and stopping to eat and noticing the odor left by other tapirs in the area. However, when they feel threatened, tapirs can run fast despite being big, and they can also defend themselves with strong jaws and sharp teeth. Asian tapirs communicate with each other with high-pitched whistles and whistles. They like to live near the water and often bathe and swim. They can also climb up steep spots. Tapirs are particularly active at night, although they are not really nocturnal. They tend to eat as the sun goes down and before the sun rises, they also often take a nap briefly. This behavior marks them as crepuscular animals.

Habitat, Predators and Vulnerability

In the past, Asian tapirs can be found throughout the lowland rainforests of Southeast Asia including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma Burma, Thailand and Vietnam. But the population has declined in recent years, and like other types of tapirs are also threatened with extinction. Due to its size, tapirs have few natural predators, even tapirs are rarely eaten by tigers. The main threat to Asian tapirs is human activity including logging for agriculture, flooding due to dams from rivers to create hydroelectric power, and illegal trade. In Thailand, for example, the arrest and sale of a young tapir can be worth US $ 5500. In areas such as Sumatra, where populations are predominantly Muslim,tapirs are rarely hunted for food because their resemblance to pigs makes taboo flesh, but in some areas they are hunted for sports or accidentally shot by other animals. Protected statuses in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, aimed at intentionally but not addressing the issue of habitat loss, have limited the recovery or the maintenance of tapir pollution.

Brevetian variation

A small number of melanistic (black-all) Asian tapirs have been observed. In 1942, an all-black tapir was sent to the Rotterdam zoo and classified as a subspecies called Tapirus indicus brevetianus named after its discoverer Captain K. Brevet. In 2000, two melanistic tapirs were observed during a study of tigers in the Jerangau Forest Sanctuary in Malaysia Peninsula.  The cause of this variation may be a genetic abnormality similar to that of panthers that appear in leopard populations. However, unless and until the individual brevetianus can be studied, the exact explanation for the trait remains unknown.

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