Just before Father’s Day today the zoo’s latest baby, the endangered Malayan tapir calf, met his father for the first time.
The wee chap who is called Baku is growing fast since his birth only a month ago on 19 May. He met Mowgli his father as all the family got together.
Here is the moment they met.
Karen Stiven, Hoofstock Keeper at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo, said: “Baku is growing quickly and is really enjoying exploring his outdoor enclosure. We separated his father Mowgli from him and his mum when he was born to give him time with his mother, Sayang, and to let him do a bit of growing. Now that he is a month old we have introduced him to his father and the trio of tapirs are getting on very well. Mowgli was definitely very interested in meeting his son.”
Baby tapirs are born with brown fur and white stripes and dots, which provides camouflage in the forest. Baku still has his spots and stripes, but will start to lose his unique pelage after a few months and, by the time he is six months old, he will look more like his parents, with a stocky black body and white or grey midsections.
Malayan tapirs are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and are increasingly threatened, with population numbers continuing to decline as a result of habitat loss and fragmentation as well as increasing hunting pressure. The population has been estimated to have declined by more than 50% in the last three generations, primarily as a result of tapir habitat being converted into palm oil plantations.
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