Today is World Tapir Day, which is dedicated to raising awareness of the wonderful tapir.  Sadly, the tapir is incredibly endangered.  All four species are officially endangered, and one of the four may have less than 50 individuals remaining.

Most people guess that the tapir is related to pigs somehow.  It has a long flexible snout, a rounded body, and a stubby little tail that are all rather pig-like.  But although the tapir looks something like a very large hog, it is most closely related to the horse and the rhinoceros (in so far as it's closely related to any other animal on Earth, which as you can tell it really isn't).  Some scientists believe that the tapir evolved from the Hyracotherium, which is a very early prehistoric form of horse.

The tapir's snout is probably its most noticeable feature.  This flexible proboscis developed relatively recently in tapir history, having evolved in the last few million years.  The tapir uses its snout like a very small trunk, as a sort of hand to grab foliage and berries.  

Tapirs like water, and most of them can be found near rivers and ponds. They can submerge themselves for several minutes to escape predators, and like to wallow about in the mud to keep cool.  Most tapirs live in tropical climates, so the mud both cools them off and serves as a protective layer against biting insects.  

Tapirs have very few natural predators in the wild.  They are fast, large, and strong, and their tough skin helps ward off attacks by predators like jaguar and tigers.  They can also defend themselves with a powerful bite, although they rarely have cause to use it, and are generally speaking a fairly shy and kind animal.

Unfortunately, the tapir requires quite a lot of undisturbed habitat to survive.  Each tapir is territorial, and patrols a fairly large territory alone.  This means that tapir are rapidly falling prey to environmental decline driven by industries which bulldoze the rainforests, cloud forests, and the island habitats of Sumatra and Malaysia.  

Timber interests, the beef industry, and the palm oil industry have all contributed directly to the catastrophic decline of the tapir.  Palm oil is one of the biggest threats to the Malaysian tapir.  Unfortunately the demand for palm oil has increased sharply recently, because it is a substitute for some trans fats.  (This doesn't mean that palm oil is healthy - far from it, in fact, because it's chock full of saturated fats.)

The Rainforest Action Network calls palm oil "one of the key causes of global rainforest destruction."  They highlight General Mills as a major consumer of palm oil.  Girl Scout Cookies also contain palm oil, which caused a bit of a media scuffle when two Girl Scouts in Michigan went on a public campaign against Girl Scout Cookies on this basis.

Although there are several events planned for World Tapir Day to help raise awareness and save the tapir, the best thing you can do for tapirs is avoid anything with "palm oil," "palm kernel oil," or "palmitate" on the ingredients list.  The tapirs will thank you!

Creative Commons-licensed image courtesy of Flickr user Travis S.