Portrait of a Tapir at the Point Defiance Zoo

Tacoma, Washington ~ August 27, 2006

Point Defiance Zoo

This Asian or Malayan tapir appears on a mural at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington.

Here's the tapir again with a few friends. I enjoyed the surprise of finding a tapir among the other animals in this outdoor painting. The zoo does much to educate their visitors about tapirs.

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Tapir Skull at Point Defiance Zoo

August 27, 2006 ~ Tacoma, Washington

Point Defiance Zoo

There was a tapir skull on display outside the Asian tapir enclosure at Point Defiance Zoo on one of my trips up there in 2006. Tapir skulls are interesting and there was a nice young woman giving info to anyone who would listen, explaining points about the skull. Notice the huge area between the top of the jaw and that small triangle of bone above it. This is the space necessary for all the passages and muscles of the tapir's nose.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

The eye socket is not enclosed, but is wide open towards the back of the head. This is a primitive form not seen in many mammals.

Check out the inside of the nasal cavity. I'm not sure what those parallel ridges are for. And check out the guy in the corner. See what I mean about the eye sockets being different?

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Tapir Tracks at Point Defiance Zoo

Tacoma, Washington ~ August 27, 2006

Point Defiance Zoo

Some of the things you find on the pavement are just unique. It almost made my day when I looked down and found tapir tracks embedded in the concrete at Point Defiance (only "almost" because we still had the real tapirs to visit). Zoos are doing a lot more these days to enhance the educational and fun value of the grounds as well as creating interesting habitat for what's inside the enclosures.

Pictured above is a tapir's rear footprint. Since the zoo has Asian tapirs, I'm assuming they took a mold from their Asian tapirs to use when they poured the concrete - and anyway, the footprint of each species has its own conformation. An Asian tapir print might possibly be confused with a Baird's tapir, but probably not with the other two species. The hind foot of every tapir species has three toes, and each toe is encased in its own separate hoof. Interesting, yes? Tapirs have feet that are totally unique in the animal world.

Now it gets even more interesting. Here you see a hind foot (below) with the forefoot superimposed over it, obliterating part of the track. This is a typical footprint pattern of tapirs. Note that the front foot has the prints of four toes. All tapirs have four toes on each front foot, but sometimes the tracks imprint in such a way as to make it appear that there are five toes. The tapir is not the only animal that steps in its own tracks. Check out these prints of big cat footprints, too.

See tapir feet here and tapir footprints here. Thanks, Point Defiance Zoo, for making your pavement so interesting and educational!

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