by Matthew Cobb
A beautiful video, and lovely animals, from Dartmoor Zoo in the UK. But why on earth the cheesy music? I’d rather hearing the grunting and snuffling of the tapir (or whatever noise they make). Spot the capybara and the peacock in the background!
The thing I noticed was the male tapir’s fifth leg there…
OMG…he almost stepped on it…
Their faces are very sweet and almost human.
But these are still wild animals…
They obviously have been talking with cats.
That capybara is like the extra who’s always trying to get into the shot, just hanging out on that hill back there.
Matthew is right, I’d rather hear the Tapir purr or grunt or even sing a drunken Karaoke rendition of “Muskrat Love” than whatever cheese-ball music that mess was.
I saw 3 capybara at one time – I think there are two swimming in addition to the one lazing around.
Now, I enjoyed both the tapirs and the cheese-ball music. Of course, I live in Wisconsin.
Tapirs actually whistle quite a lot. 🙂 They are also very greasy, stroking them like that can leave you hands black and it needs lots of soap and scrubbing to get it off.
Moment killer!
The girls and I spotted 7 capybaras at Dartmoor Zoo; curious little animals, happy, apparently, to wade through their own faeces. This is the zoo on which the film, ‘I bought a Zoo’ is based. I don’t know whether the story is true. The film is good for littl’uns. Hollywood, but sweet. x
Nice.
sub
I never knew there was a Dartmoor Zoo and I live less than an hours drive away! There is even an opportunity to meet some tigers! I almost chocked on my own excitement. The children’s parties sound great, I wonder if they’ll let a weird 24 year old bloke do one of these parties by himself.
Thank you. x
Just north of the A38, outskirts of Plymouth. Bugs, snails and snakes hut is great: the enthusiastic young keepers have a real mission to explain. A zoo small enough to find out a lot. Morning in the zoo: river-swimming in the River Tavy/Walkham in the afternoon. x
I do admist I had never thought of them as “cute” before.
As a kid, I read a, “Classics Illustrated” comic book based on a book about some explorer’s true wildlife adventures: in one part, a normally-placid tapir went berserk for some reason and came close to killing him.
When I had a “hippie-farm” with some friends years ago, we had a brood sow named Matilda (Yorkshire, over 400 lbs) who, when you rubbed her flank, would immediately fall over and roll onto her side to get her tummy scratched.
pics of Mathilda??
And, if it’s too late and you already do, be sure to taper off slowly.
b&
booooo;-)
Very much like cats – at least like my cat.
Here’s a biological question:
Note that they close their eyes when they’re stroked, like cats and girl friends. Is this a common behavioral trait among mammals? Any theories as to why?
Cause they like it. Just a theory.
Adorable!
Not as cuddly as you might think, we had a incident between one and a toddler in Dublin zoo that left the toddler badly mauled.
Photos are a bit graphic of bite area, so click with care.
http://www.thejournal.ie/tapir-attacked-in-dublin-zoo-imj-1804674-Nov2014/
eek – I had not read your comment – but see Darren Naish’s item below…
Darren Naish covered Tapirs in Sci Am last year – read the horrific tapir attack in comment 64 if you can… terrible injuries…
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/2013/08/11/tapir-attacks-past-present-not-future/
Yes, I read that, thank you. I think a good message is to leave mothers alone with their babies and remember that a large non-domesticated animal should be handled with extreme care and attention.