by Leonardo Salas

This is a brief account based on what little knowledge we have of tapir anti-predator strategies, and of the known predators of tapirs. Commonly, we hear reports or see photographs of attacks on tapirs, reports such as the survival story of Mr. Rodriguez Echandi in the lowland forests of Costa Rica. Yet rarely, a researcher gets a glimpse of an attack or finds the remnants of a kill. There are scientific accounts and unquestionable data on the diet of predators including tapir as prey. But to my knowledge, there is no published account of the effect of natural predators on tapirs in the scientific literature. In other words, we know the killer, but not the age and numbers of prey tapirs.

Adult Lowland tapir demonstrating the tapir's strong swimming skills, Parque Nacional Brasilia, Brazil. © 2006 Paulo Andre Lima Borqes.

We should begin by stating that adult tapirs, being large (the Andean tapir, the smaller species, can reach 100 Kg in size), escape most significantly smaller predators. This is in itself a strategy to avoid predators. In fact, adult tapirs are killed mainly by large cats and occasionally, perhaps, by large snakes like Anacondas. (There is no confirmed scientific report of the latter, but recently a video was posted where an Anaconda regurgitated a lowland tapir – it is unknown whether the snake killed the animal, but this is probably the case). So, the adult Malayan tapir is prey to tigers and leopards in the Malayan peninsula, and to tigers only in the island of Sumatra; the adult lowland tapir and Baird’s tapir are prey to jaguars; the adult Andean tapir is prey to pumas. (Pumas in Central and South America are not as large as in the U.S.).

It is also likely that adult, or “old or sickly” lowland and Baird’s tapirs fall prey also of pumas in the Neotropics, pumas being significantly smaller than tapirs. For example, an old lowland or Baird’s tapir (over 100 Kg) may be killed by a large puma (weighing as much as 50 Kg or more). But it is the young tapirs that are perhaps more susceptible to predation. In fact, this threat on young ungulates is the evolutionary force suspected of driving two important adaptations in tapirs.

First, like most large ungulates, tapirs produce one offspring (rarely twins) per birth. This offspring is born ready to walk - another anti-preadator adaptation. It is a substantial investment of energy on the part of the mother, because she gestates the fetus until it reaches that development stage. It is no wonder that tapirs gestate for 12-13 months and breed in the wild only once every other year (though, there is one field report of a female tapir in oestrus 18 months after her previous birth). Compare the tapir’s reproductive strategy to that of pigs, which can give birth to large numbers (4-12) of undeveloped offspring every year. So, tapirs are born ready to move and avoid predators by staying next to their mothers, at a considerable energetic cost to the mother.
Inevitably, the mothers need to browse for food covering long distances and the newborn tapirs cannot keep up.

The second adaptation is in regards to protection from predators when the young are left behind. Tapirs are born with a brown to reddish-brown pelage, with rows of white dots. This coloration has long been suspected to aid in camouflaging the baby tapir - another adaptation to avoid predation.

A Baird's tapir mother watches her youngster closely, Campeche, Mexico. ©2006 Raphel Reina-Hurtado.

In a rather “obscure” scientific publication, the author speculated on the tapir’s strategy to avoid predation in early life and its behavioral development – no data from the wild exists. The explanation goes as follows: the very young tapir moves very little and remains mostly crouched and hiding in thick vegetation. The mother goes on browsing forays, returning once or twice daily to feed the young. When the mother meets the baby, the young tapir follows her mother and feeds for a while, until she eventaully leaves the baby behind for another foray. As the baby grows, it spends more and more time walking with her mother, learning what species are edible, before it is left behind again. The process goes on until the young tapir reaches a level of independence where it has learned to find food and the mother is no longer needed.

All throughout this growth and learning process, the newborn tapir slowly loses the camouflage coloration. Estimates from wild and captive animals suggest that the last signs of the newborn coloration are lost around 7 months of age. It is not known how long the young remains foraging with and protected by its mother, but some data suggest it could be more than a year.

Because tapirs invest so much in their offspring, it is only natural that they become fiercely protective when their infants are attacked. A hidden baby tapir, alone, may fall prey to jaguars, tigers or pumas, but also to small cats such as ocelots or clouded leopards (we have no data on ocelots or clouded leopards eating baby tapirs). Mr. Rodriguez did not give any indication of the size of the baby tapir he saw limping. We can only speculate that it must have been a sizable offspring, already able to survive a large cat attack - a jaguar or puma, if that was the case. We can also speculate that the young tapir was still under one year of age. The mother’s defensive behavior, as bluntly experienced by Mr. Rodriguez, is only to be expected.

French Guiana--the savage remains of a poached tapir taken by a hunter. Read more about the poaching problems in French Guiana. ©2005 Benoit de Thoisy, TSG.

How do tapirs escape predators? Anyone who has seen tapirs in the wild can answer this question without hesitation: tapirs run through thickets of forest and/or dive into rivers or deep pools of water. A galloping tapir breaks through bushes with branches 3-4 inches (8-10 cm) thick. A small cat gripping the back of the tapir will have a hard time holding on to its prey if it’s being hit by thick branches. Also, although cats can and do swim, they are no match to the natatory prowess of a tapir, which can go under water for a minute and thus escape the chasing predator.
Despite all their adaptations to avoid predation, there is still one predator tapirs of any age are unable to escape – relentless and insatiable – man.