This is Mayo, a baby male mountain tapir which is now being hand raised at the Cali Zoo. Hopefully he will bring hope to the survival of the species in captivity in the near future.
This is Mayo, a baby male mountain tapir which is now being hand raised at the Cali Zoo. Hopefully he will bring hope to the survival of the species in captivity in the near future.
I was very lucky to have been able to see a Mountain Tapir calf at the Los Angeles Zoo back in 2007. Personally, I think they are probably the cutest of all tapir calves.
I seem to have a vague recollection of Cali Zoo having the only captive mountain tapir of South America and LA Zoo / AZA loaning out an individual in the hope the newly formed pair might breed and give the very small genetic base of the captive population a well needed boost. Might this tapir calf be the net result of that endeavour?
If I can remember correctly, I believe a pair was actually sent down to the Cali Zoo from LA. If this calf is the result from the pair that went down there then that's great news!
Just to clarify a little bit, and I´m sorry I didn´t say this when I originally posted the picture, but the baby is wild born. I don´t know the full story but apparently someone killed the mother and then saw the cub, so it took it to the environmental authorities which later sent it to the zoo. Hopefully now that he is completely unrelated to other mountain tapirs there might be a chance of giving the genetic boost that the species needs in captivity.
