The Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus) belongs to a small family of animals whose history stretches back for eons. The only Asian species, the Malayan tapir is an extremely unusual-looking creature – so much so in fact, that early explorers to the area were ridiculed when they described it to their
peers. Despite being so unusual and, therefore, charismatic, the tapir has been mostly ignored by researchers and conservationists alike. Now their forest home is under threat and an increasing number of them are dying under the wheels of the nation’s cars.
The Malayan tapir is the only Asian member of an already small family, the Tapiridae, whose only other members all live in South America. If we are to look further afield to its more distant relatives, however, we will see that it also shares an ancestry with far more familiar species such as horses, zebras and rhinoceroses; the latter of which probably represent the tapirs’ closest living relation. Despite the obvious differences between these animals, they all share several anatomical features, including having an odd number of toes on, at least, their hind feet. It was also this unique feature that gave rise to the name of the order to which they all belong: Perissodactyla.
