Aug 11, 2007: Tapirs at Longleat

Photos by ebichu64

First posted on Tapirs Google group

August 11, 2007

Mary wrote:

Hi all,

Better late than never, here's my little bit on the Tapirs at Longleat. Better Pics next year, I promise!

We managed to pick one of the few sunny days this year has had to offer so far, so it was no surprise to find many of the animals flat out enjoying the sudden warm weather – or maybe they had all fainted from shock. The downside of taking the safari bus was that we didn’t stop as expected at the East African reserve, where the tapirs are kept by default as there isn't a large enough South American section (yet!). The Wallabys are kept there too and they're from New Zealand...

Normally you can get out of your car, have a picnic and see the animals. The bus usually stops for 15 minutes, but not this time. This was mostly due to the amount of traffic that day; the whole tour took 30 minutes longer than expected. The upside was that we got a great view of the monkeys wrecking other people’s cars; they take a fancy to the rubber trim, the wipers, and it’s no use squirting them with the windscreen washers – to them it’s just a free drink. But I wasn’t able to get close to the tapirs as I'd hoped, and all my pictures are thanks to the nifty zoom on my camera. Next time we'll hire a car and avoid the monkeys. Might be called Harold, and finally mum, Jessie.

2. Keeping cool, dad, Jethro.

Longleat have started producing video postcasts, and number 3 has the new baby Tapir "in action". The podcasts are mostly aimed at children and so the narration is a bit... well, you'll see what I mean. "Chaps" - no one talks like that in England any more, "Honest, Guv!"

http://www.longleat.co.uk/video/july07/

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