Appearance

The Malayan tapir has a very distinctive coat pattern with the front part of the body until just after the front legs being black along with the hind legs, while the back has a saddle of white or grey. While this pattern might not seem to be very good for camouflage it is highly effective at breaking up their outline making them almost invisible in the moonlight in the jungle or the shady enviroment in which they live, and also it can make them look like a large rock when they are lying down during the day.

They have a stocky body that is tapered at the front and rounded at the back, they have four toes on the front feet and three toes on the back feet. Their ears are large and black with a white rim, they have small beady eyes, a small stumpy tail and the nose and upper lip form a proboscis (an elongated appendage from the head of an animal).

Malayan tapirs are about 1.8 to 2.4 metres (6-8 ft) in length and they stand 90 to 107 cms (3-3.5 ft) tall, they weigh on average 250 to 320 kgs (550-700 pounds) with the females usually being larger than the males.

Diet

The Malayan tapir is a grazer and a browser. The tapir uses its nose like a finger to grab leaves from tree branches or to pick up fruit that has fallen on the forest floor. They feed mostly on grasses, leaves, buds, twigs, aquatic plants and fruits from low shrubs. They eat the leaves and shoots from a huge variety of plants, around 115 species although they really prefer about 30 of those.

The Malayan tapirs nose is very useful when the tapir wants to eat as they can use it to pluck leaves from the trees and they can also use it to explore a circle of ground 30 cms (1 ft) in diameter without even moving its head.