Which EDGE mammal interests you more: The pygmy hippo or the mountain tapir ? (poll)

Wow, even so it seems to me like you have seen it in quite a few zoos, very lucky indeed.

I actually had no idea that the mountain tapir had been historically kept by quite so many European zoos.

 

Quite interesting to see how many votes the mountain tapir is getting.

 

While I have seen a Pygmy hippo, (albeit, not very well, it is the Lied Jungle after all) I feel the Mountain tapir is quite unique and is a precious member of the genus, and in its natural habitat.
Pretty Much all I'm gonna say, as other points have already been made about the protection of the species on this thread.
I Love EDGE Either way, and both of these animals are very important in my opinion. The Mountain tapir just feels like it is in more dire threat to me.

 

Sorry about the late reply @CheeseChameleon2007 ! Somehow I missed this comment and didn't see it.

Well I can see where you are coming from with this comment as I have also seen pygmy hippos in zoos a number of times and though they are fascinating animals they lack that enigmatic quality of the mountain tapir to me (which is probably because I have never seen one in the flesh).

I'm not actually sure which species would be considered to be more endangered / threatened as both are classed by the IUCN as "Endangered". Moreover, both species are subject to roughly the same anthropogenic threats from habitat destruction, the bushmeat trade and for use of their body parts in traditional medicine.

But if I was to take a wild guess then I would say that the pygmy hippo may be more threatened than the tapir. This purely based on its extent of occurence in Liberia which is a very troubled country indeed and where the bushmeat trade is robust and pretty much unenforceable in terms of any legislation put in place to restrict or ban the hunting of some species.

 

Looks like the mountain tapir won this poll , very interesting that people find this species to be more charismatic and interesting.

To celebrate it winning the poll here is some camera trap footage of a wild mountain tapir in Ecuador:


Also, here is a video of an amazing encounter in the wild with a curious mountain tapir:

 

I would have voted for mountain tapir.

I had some plans to see the species last year by visiting Los Angeles Zoo, but the whole trip got cancelled because of well known reason. I hope the global situation will be better later this year, so I can visit southwestern USA in second stance.

The closest I got to a mountain tapir for now, is seeing road signs warning for crossing mountain tapirs (and spectacled bears and white-tailed deers) in the Ecuadorian Andes. I didn't see any of these big mammals though, all I saw was a mountain cottontail (which wasn't bad either).

 

I'm sure you will have further opportunities to see the species @AWP , don't worry about that.

Wow, I didn't know they had these kind of signs on roadsides in Ecuador but it makes sense.

A friend of mine works in the conservation of the spectacled bear in Colombia, has done for years, and has only seen the species twice so it really is quite a difficult task to catch a glimpse of these animals in the wild.

 

I have a photo of one of these signs, a bear with cub on a yellow background with in red "despacio - osos cruzando". The way from Quito to Papallacta goes partly through Parque Nacional Cayambe-Coca, so that's the section I saw these roadsigns.

Quite a pity that both zoos I visited in Ecuador only kept the lowland tapir, a species I have seen plenty in captivity. Ecuador has the highest tapir diversity in the world together with Colombia (or second highest after Colombia, depending the status of the kabomani tapir) with Baird's tapir in the northwestern part, mountain tapir in the Andes and lowland tapir in the Oriente.

 

Well, I came too late for the polls. Though it would be a tough choice, I think I would’ve voted for mountain tapir.

Although pygmy hippos are really interesting animals for sure, the tapir’s much greater rarity in captivity definitely makes them seem more “mysterious”. Among the tapirs, they also seem very unique as the only extant species adapted to colder climates. They also have a distinct appearance with their thicker coat and the white fur around their lips and orange around their cheeks (in some individuals) contrasting with their otherwise near-black coats. I’d say they’re my second-favorite species from the family after the Malayan tapir.

 

No worries @evilmonkey239 there will be a few more polls of this kind for you to vote in and in fact there is currently this one : Which EDGE mammal interests you more: The pangolin or the echidna ? (poll)

Definitely agree about the distinctiveness of the mountain tapirs appearance and especially compared with other tapir species. I've read that they are actually the most primitive of all the extant tapirs and there is certainly something about them that makes them look positively prehistoric even by tapir standards.

 

Would be brilliant to see that picture, would you mind posting it here on zoochat ?

I think there is at least one zoo in Colombia that keeps the tapir, the Cali zoo, and I think there may be also a zoo in Peru that has the species too.

I personally would love to see the mountain tapir in either captivity or the wild one day as it is kind of the last species of tapir I have yet to see in the flesh so can't wait to finally achieve this.

 

I just uploaded it into the gallery of Ecuador.

 

Awesome !

Thanks for sharing @AWP !