Veteran momma Tembikai has a new watermelon! Born on September 21 we have named our new little girl Nadira (meaning precious gift). She loves the water and has the cutest little zoomies ❤️

Photographer Michiel van Noppen won this year's Fritz Pölking Prize for this shot of tapirs (Mamita and her son Julian) foraging.
Source:
https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/photography/awards-and-competitions/deep-in-the-costa-rican-rainforest-an-adult-tapir-teaches-a-youngster-to-survive-in-the-most-fragile-of-ecosystems-heres-how-this-prize-winning-shot-captured-the-scene-so-beautifully

The Jícaro Danto tree (Parmentiera valerii) is endangered -- tapirs play a critical role in dispersing the fruit. I suspect there were other large mammals eating it, but after the Ice Age a lot of them went extinct. Tapirs were left as the biggest native terrestrial mammal in the Americas, south of Mexico City.
The tree's rather unusual -- note that the fruit is sprouting directly from the trunk, not the branches. This is called cauliflory by botanists. It seems to be more common in the topics -- some important food trees like cacao, breadfruit, and durian exhibit it. So do some temperate species like redbuds and sea buckthorn.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauliflory

More photos in van Noppen's series here:
https://michielvannoppen.com/talesoftheforestkeepers

Video of tapirs eating the "tapir tree" fruit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKoOp3RlZU0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yVWARo5h2M
If they stand on their hind legs, they can reach a considerable way up the trunk -- still I suspect that now-extinct taller animals could reach even further.

I juat found out this animal and sub exists and im so damn happy! And curious

The rescued baby tapir is losing her spots.

I like to imagine that these guys have Cajun accents.

Look how happy they are to be taken care of.

Em raro registro noturno se alimentando e vocalizando no final do vídeo. Percebe-se que é mais cautelosa e assustada que o macho.

Female tapir feeding and vocalizing in the end of the video. In rare nightime record. It is noticed that it is more cautious and frightened than the male.

I seem to remember that a couple of years ago, someone who lived in the lower Great Lakes area (Western NY, Pennsylvania, southern Ontario -- maybe Ohio or Michigan?) was asking about nearby places to see a tapir.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcJVP3IxE_n/
I noticed this video (and this other one, posted this past summer) about a female Malayan tapir. They say her name is Trinket. I think I recall reading (on Facebook maybe?) that she’s elderly, maybe past breeding age?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbdpRJghyyW/
Although I grew up nearby, I live in a different province now so I haven't been to Safari Niagara yet (they seem to have openedin the early 2000s).

They had a lowland tapir named Stanley. He was mentioned in 2014 so he was there for awhile.
https://ladyofthezoos.com/2014/08/02/animals-beat-the-heat-at-safari-niagara/
Safari Niagara posted a pic of Stanley back in 2022 but I haven't seen any more references to him so he may not be there anymore. They mentioned that he was turning 27 later that year, which is getting pretty old for a tapir -- although I think Kingut, a Malayan tapir in the UK, made it past 40? (It's unusual for a zoo to have more than one tapir species at the same time, even individuals.)
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc22i6mLjVW/

I did check the Safari Niagara website and at least at present, they didn't have any tapirs listed. I guess it's possible that Trinket arrived recently and they haven't updated the info yet. But I noticed someone else was asking about where her enclosure was.
https://www.safariniagara.com/mammals

I'd heard about the African Lion Safari (northwest of there) maybe having a tapir, and they posted this video earlier in the summer too. (It’s great to see a tapir swimming in a natural-looking pond/creek! I think those “clucking” and squeaking sounds are a sign of happiness/excitement -- I've seen video of other tapirs making them when swimming or running around.)

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZF5VDpxeDp/

She's a female, but they didn't give a name. I'm now starting to wonder if she and Trinket might be the same tapir, and she moved to Safari Niagara this year.

p.s. The Metro Zoo in Toronto had a Malayan tapir as recently as the early 2010s, but it sounds like this changed by the end of that decade.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8stu_KDZbts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezyQyKiJj-o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRtZKawjpLg
(I hadn't realized it until now, but they even had a calf born there in 1983. The parents were named Tommy and Tulip. I don't know if the baby survived, or where it might have gone.)
https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/236925/rare-tapir-born-looking-like-a-watermelon-with-legs-a-rare

I think it would be really cool if this sub got user flairs! There could be 4 flairs to choose from: Baird's tapir, lowland/Brazilian tapir, mountain tapir, and Malayan tapir! There could also be an option to customize user flairs, so someone could put a specific tapir as a flair! For example, Ume the Tapir from Minnesota Zoo, or Ally the Tapir from Highpoint Haven. Just a suggestion! What do y'all think?

I had a piece of purple modeling clay the size of my palm, and when I squeezed it, I got the idea to make a figure and I was able to make a tapir.

It looked voluminous and attractive, I hope it turns out well 💜