Baby tapir born just in time for World Tapir Day!

Check out the large version of this beautiful baby tapir photo here:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6178550.ece

(NOTE: A stock photo (above) has been used in this article. It's still adorable, of course, but it's not Tara and Toby's baby. Thanks, Elisabeth for pointing that out and sending the URL. You can see the baby here. I think the photo may have been taken when the baby was only a few hours old or less. On the video we saw someone crouching the stall taking pictures. Be prepared. This baby is CUTE!)

http://www.noahsarkzoofarm.co.uk/images/visiting/visiting/baby_tapir.jpg

Many in the UK and elsewhere have been watching Tara and Toby since last December. Nobody guessed the delivery date would be so late in the year, because it's hard to know that unless you know the date of conception, and clearly no one did. Gestation is 13 months, and it was quite a waiting game. You can read comments as people waited and fell in love with Toby and Tara:

http://www.checkanimalslive.com/camera/Noahs-Ark-Tapir-Enclosure.html

By following this link, you can also see mom and baby as they interrelate and as the new baby gets used to his new surroundings and begins to grow. He'll gain roughly 1 pound per day for many months. Follow the posts below the zoo's description of the tapir, and you can also copy the link to the YouTube video of the birth. I hadn't expected anything like Tara's reaction to the contractions. Personally, the only tapir birth I've witnessed was online, and the video clip started when the baby was about to drop. I'm kind of glad I didn't see the actual birth in real time and only checked the cam about two minutes after junior was born, because I would have thought I was watching Tara having pre-death convulsions! But I've now heard from a reliable source (a tapir vet, no less) that this sort of reaction is quite usual in ungulates.

Tara Tapir - Live Tapir Cam

http://www.checkanimalslive.com/camera/Noahs-Ark-Tapir-Enclosure.html

Tara tapir must be getting very close to giving birth now. She was breathing heavily last night, but today there's no new calf. She certainly looks ready. You might like to check in with the tapir cam link above and read some of the viewer comments beneath the text, too. Toby is also a favorite and it's fun to watch the two of them. They get along famously.

I printed a new URL the other day, but they've switched back to the one above. I also like looking at their other cams (not all animals, thought mosltly in the UK time zone):

http://www.checkitlive.com/

There are several pages of cams to choose from.

See a Malayan tapir giving birth on video - Artis Zoo, Amsterdam

I received this note yesterday:

Hi Sheryl,

We have just found your tapirgallery.blogspot.com. Nice site for tapir-fans like us! But did you know there was a tapir born in ARTIS Amsterdam in December 2008? And they made films (birth + first steps), here you can find the first: http://www.artis.nl/main.php?pagina=paginas/a/tapirjong_film.html (to
see the film of the birth follow the link:

http://www.artis.nl/main.php?pagina=paginas/a/lief_leed/liefenleed.php?liefenleed_id=170

Regards + have fun! Georg + Ingrid

Note: I could not make a direct link to the birth video. You will have to click on the link that says: >>Bekijk het geboortefilmpje en link door naar de 1e filmbeelden (as Georg and Ingrid noted in their original e-mail).