1/23/2004: Baby Tapir

Undertoad • Jan 23, 2004 11:17 am

Happy Friday! This little girl is a Brazilian Tapir, four weeks old, from the Dublin Zoo.

Tapirs have that strange coloration for the first year of their life. It's meant to camoflage them while they're on the ground of the forest.

Somehow they wound up with four toes on each front paw and three on each back paw.

You want one, sure, but they reach 600 lbs (224 kg).

wolf • Jan 23, 2004 11:39 am

600 lbs. Hmmm. Do they taste more like chicken or pork? Has anyone thought about ranching these things ... might be the next Ostrich.

hot_pastrami • Jan 23, 2004 12:05 pm

Originally posted by wolf
600 lbs. Hmmm. Do they taste more like chicken or pork? Has anyone thought about ranching these things ... might be the next Ostrich.

I was the next Ostrich once. It tingled.

headsplice • Jan 23, 2004 2:47 pm

mmmmm....General Tso's Tapir.....tapirlicious....

xoxoxoBruce • Jan 24, 2004 12:03 am

A 4 week old Brazilian girl running around Dublin? No wonder they're becoming extinct. Children shouldn't be running wild at that age.

lumberjim • Jan 24, 2004 12:53 am

Originally posted by hot_pastrami

I was the next Ostrich once. It tingled.

you're one of the weekend warriors form the pot poll, aren't you?

hot_pastrami • Jan 24, 2004 1:08 am

Originally posted by lumberjim
you're one of the weekend warriors form the pot poll, aren't you?

Dude... it's eerie how often I hear those exact words spoken to me. Cough.

Man, I've got the munchies...

xoxoxoBruce • Jan 24, 2004 8:23 am

Better the pot poll than Pol Pot.;)

Beletseri • Jan 24, 2004 11:56 am

That is just the cutest damn thing. Is it running or standing up to look at something?

Slartibartfast • Jan 24, 2004 12:12 pm

He is adorable!

He is in motion- his center of gravity would make it impossible to be in that position motionless.

xoxoxoBruce • Jan 24, 2004 12:47 pm

Originally posted by Beletseri
That is just the cutest damn thing. Is it running or standing up to look at something?

She's running or perhaps bounding is more accurate for youth.:D

Griff • Jan 24, 2004 4:37 pm

The girls loved it, nice catch UT!

warch • Jan 26, 2004 12:14 pm

Years ago, as an impressionable girl, I saw a big, randy, male tapir getting ready to get it on. I've always remembered the Tapir. It was an education at the zoo.:eek:

Uryoces • Jan 26, 2004 2:47 pm

Really primitive looking guys. They were in the prologue in 2001: A Space Oddysey along with the mimes.