Baird's and Mountain Tapirs in Europe

Pygathrix

Pygathrix

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Does anyone have any details of these animals in Europe? I have seen mountain tapirs at Stuttgart in the early 80's and am pretty sure I saw them at another zoo around the same time but can't remember which (Paris?) I have a vague recollection of a Baird's tapir in Rome zoo years ago but am not sure if this is correct. I know there are now 2.2 at Wuppertal and 1 Berlin.
 
"Baird's Tapirs" in Rome

Hello,

The "Baird's tapirs" you saw in the Rome Zoo back in the 1970s or 1980s were actually mislabelled lowland tapirs. I saw them, too. We had heard that the Rome Zoo had Baird's tapirs and since were were studying tapirs, we went out of our way to see them. Alas, they were mislabelled. We enjoyed seeing any tapirs, of course, but when we tried to notify the director, he wouldn't come out of his office and talk to us. I don't know how many years the misleading sign stayed up. I doubt that the zoo was trying to fool anyone. Back then there were so many mislabelled tapirs in books that it was hard to figure out how to distinguish the three American species.

Several European zoos held mountain tapirs in the early years (from 1968), but most died as they did in those early days in US zoos as well. The zoo in Stuttgart had the last mountain tapir in Europe. There's a story about it in one of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group Newsletters. It would take some digging into the files to know which zoos might have had mountain tapirs when you were there. I seem to remember that Paris had some at one time, and several other zoos also. I have some contacts who could probably tell you if you really want to know. Please visit my web site, The Tapir Gallery, and send me e-mail. My address is listed on every page (sometimes at the bottom). I'm not sure if my e-mail address will show up on this blog, so I'm sending you by that route.

All the best,

Sheryl
 
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Also

There are studbooks that detail the captive history of each tapir species. However, there was no studbook for the mountain tapirs last I heard.
 
Hello Sheryl!

Have any European zoos bred Mountain or Baird's Tapir?

Was Belfast thinking of getting the Baird's Tapir?

Thanks,
 
Hi Jonathan!

I have to tell you, I'm out of the loop with what's going on in most of the zoos at the moment. My efforts have been concentrated elsewhere, and time seems so short these days. I wish I could follow everything about tapirs. No European zoo has bred mountain tapirs. They had hoped to in Stuttgart, but the male was infertile (what a sad bit of bad luck!) and there were not enough mountain tapirs around to make an exchange before the female got too old.

Baird's tapirs were brought to Wuppertal with the intention of breeding, and I believe they have had more than one calf, but don't quote me! You could contact the Wuppertal Zoo and I'm sure they'd be happy to tell you. As far as I know that's still the only zoo in Europe to have Baird's tapirs unless any of their offspring have gone to other European zoos. I handn't heard anything about Baird's tapirs in re: Belfast, but I think you'll find that if you contact these zoos and ask to talk to the Curator of Mammals or the Director, they'll be pleased to talk to you. Usually there is at least one "tapir person" among the zoo's staff, and if you can connect with them, they'll be helpful. If you get stuck, let me know. It's great to see you pursuing your interest in tapirs and other animals. I enjoyed your site!

Sheryl
 
Hello Sheryl and thanks for the information. The Rome mislabelling thing would explain why I couldn't clearly remember seeing a Baird's tapir there.

Wuppertal have bred three calves; one male went to Berlin Tierpark last year but is no longer listed on ISIS so I don't know what happened to him.
 
From the top of my head: Wuppertal imported two unrelated males and an unrelated female in 1994. One male paired with the female and produced a female offspring, which was subsequently paired with the lone male and they also produced one offspring sofar. This young male was sent to Tierpark Berlin in 2007 where it stayed behind the scenes for quite a while, but i believe it's now on show.

Off Zootierliste:
The Rome Zoo is reported as having Baird's tapirs, but the person who entered it on Zootierliste mentions that he knows about it because it featured in an article in a Ruhrzoo magazine, and the foto that came with it shows a lowland tapir so he also suspects mislabeling...

About the Mountain tapirs:
Frankfurt Zoo: 1968 bis 1975, no breeding
Leipzig Zoo: At least untill 1967, no breeding
Stuttgart: until ca. 1997, no breeding
 
You guys are inspiring me to look up my detailed file of info on mountain tapirs in captivity - Europe and US. I'll try to get to it tomorrow. I see this would be a good forum for it. Somebody send me e-mail if I don't get to it right away, please!

Sheryl
 
As far as I know, Frankfurt(1968-1975), Leipzig(1969-1981?), Stuttgart(1968-1997; all in all 3,1) and Paris(1968?-1982?) Zoo kept Mountain Tapirs in the past. Some zoos, like Poznan or Cologne (1953?!) and an "UK zoo in 1965" are supposed to have kept Mountain tapirs in the past, but that are most likely just rumours, based on misinterpretations of other tapirs species.

During 1978-1981, Stuttgart Zoo kept three Mountain tapirs (1.2); one was the former Leipzig female. When the last Stuttgart male ("Boris", after almost 22 years of husbandry) died in 1993, the LA Zoo wanted to send a male to the last female in Stuttgart; unfortunately, he died on the way to the airport.

All in all, at least 20 specimen of Mountain Tapir seemed to have been caught and transported to American & European zoos by an animal trader in 1968.
 
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From Wuppertal's website:

Tanya female imported from USA
Tonka male imported from USA (Los Angeles)
Susanna female b 1998 Tonka x Tanya
Moli male b 2006 Tonka x Tanya
Chico male born 2006, mother Susanna, father not stated but ?grandfather Tonka. No other male mentioned. Chico is the male in Berlin, I'm sure he was listed there in ISIS previously but is not listed now. Presumably a mistake as he was alive and well in April:

Berliner Morgenpost: Berlin vom 13.04.2008: Chicos Welt: Wie ein Tapir im Elefantenhaus überlebt

I would hope that there are plans for further imports into Europe as otherwise this is going to be a breeding dead-end.
 
Pygathrix said:
Presumably a mistake as he was alive and well in April:
Click to expand...

Nah, Berlin Tierpark (who IS listed) held the animal behind the scenes untill an enclosure for him was ready at Berlin Zoo (who is NOT listed) ?

Edit: hmm i might have things mixed up, but it'll have something to do with him moving from one park to the other...
 
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Sheryl,

I have seen all the species of Tapir, and I think the Mountain is the most Charismatic and is my personal favourite. Are there any plans to import more individuals to boost captive populations in the U.S?

I also believe Cologne were interested in keeping the species...
 
Sorry jwer, it's actually the other way round, with the Tierpark listing and the zoo not listing (I just checked using several species I know are present at both). This doesn't explain the Chico situation but it sounds like he's fine. I hope they can get a mate for him soon.
 
I don't know if some of you knew already, but LA is planning to send a male Mountain Tapir to the Cologne Zoo. I posted the news a while back on the cologne forum.
 
Any details on which animal and when exactly it's going to be sent? All i know is that they are going to send a lone male over, dunno what good that'll do but i'll visit Cologne to go and see it nonetheless :)
 
jwer said:
Any details on which animal and when exactly it's going to be sent? All i know is that they are going to send a lone male over, dunno what good that'll do but i'll visit Cologne to go and see it nonetheless :)
Click to expand...

sorry, I don't really know when or which animal will be sent.
 
Mountain tapir in Stuttgart (1983)

I photographed a Mountain tapir (sex unknown) at Wilhelma - Stuttgart Zoo on 9 August 1983 - the photo is in the tapir section of the Gallery.
 
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