GARDENERS OF THE FOREST
Listen to Lucy’s three-part series, Political Animals, on BBC Sounds
CONSERVATION heroes come in all shapes and sizes, but none as mysterious as the tapir. Latin America’s largest native land mammal is a peculiar-looking beast that swims like a hippopotamus and climbs like a goat. It also eats like an elephant, using an elongated prehensile snout to pluck the tastiest fruit and leaves and deliver them into a decidedly equine mouth.
The tapir appears to have been cobbled together from an eclectic assortment of random beasts. The overall effect is quite prehistoric, which is fitting: the tapir hasn’t really changed in more than 35 million years, earning it the title of ‘living fossil’. Its closest living relative is the rhinoceros. The tapir shares a profoundly shy nature with its distant cousin, which has ensured this jungle giant’s secrets have been well-kept – until now. Research is revealing surprising insights into the tapir’s private life, including its unlikely role as a four-footed eco-warrior with a smelly secret weapon.
I’ve always loved odd animals and frankly they don’t get much odder than the tapir. So when I got the chance to travel to Costa Rica in late 2021 and hang out with local conservation biologist Esteban Brenes-Mora, AKA “the tapir guy”, I jumped at the chance.
There are four living species of
