they are (a) clearly visible and (b)
combine colored pictures or symbols
with short texts giving the most
interesting facts.
 Most respondents to the survey said
that they recognized what a tapir was
from former zoo visits; the second
most common source of knowledge
was television. Some children said that
they had seen tapirs in picture books,
and wanted to show their parents the
animals in real life.
 Although many zoo visitors are able
to identify tapirs correctly, much
confusion still exists. While all tapir
species are most commonly mis-
identified by zoo visitors as anteaters,
mountain tapirs were more often
compared or confused with bears. In
contrast, the other three species were
more often confused with pigs.

Conclusions
In every zoo where I conducted this
study, I met a few visitors who said that
tapirs were their favorite animals.
 The positive reactions of zoo
visitors increased with duration of time
at the exhibit: whenever people had a
reason to spend more time than
average in watching tapirs, they began
to like the tapirs a bit more. This fact
indicates that zoos should keep the
animals in exhibits where the animals
can engage in all types of natural
behavior. Furthermore, zoos should
explain the most interesting facts about
these animals on attractive and well-
located signboards.
 There seem to be only two ways to
increase captive tapirs' activity and
attractiveness to zoo visitors. One way
is by enriching the tapirs' everyday lives
by offering:
. a variety of food items at several
times during the day
* showers
* pools (pools need not be large or
elaborate simply of adequate size for
the tapir to immerse itself)
 A second way could be attempting
to mix tapirs with other species, e.g.,
smaller mammals or birds, in the kind
of larger, naturally-structured exhibits
that are very well accepted by zoo
visitors. (In this case, some tricks may
be necessary to make the animals


remain visible to zoo visitors.)


Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the zoos I
worked at or visited where directors,
curators, veterinarians, researchers,
and animal keepers supported this
project: Berlin Animal Park; Berlin
Zoo; Dortmund Animal Park;
Frankfurt Zoo; Heidelberg Zoo; Los
Angeles Zoo; Munich Animal Park
Hellabrunn; Osnabruck Zoo; San
Diego Zoo; Wuppertal Zoo;
Zoological Gardens ofNuremberg.
 I would also like to offer many
thanks to my supervisor, Professor
Heinz F. Moeller, University of
Heidelberg, Germany, who
remembered the tapirs when I was
searching for an interesting project; to
the Association of Friends and
Supporters of the Zoological Museum
at Heidelberg Universty for
sponsoring my trip to the USA; and
last but not least, to Sheryl Todd of
the Tapir Preservation Fund in
Palisade, Colorado, USA, who keeps
me up to date with information about
tapirs, and discusses plans and results.

Stefan Seitz
Graduate Biologist
University of Heidelberg
Zoologiua Institute I
Im NeuenheimerFeld 230
Heidelberg 69120 ennrany
s75 @i.urz uni-heidelberg.de


 I A male mountain rapir at
 the Cheyenne Mountain
 Zoo, Colorado Springs,
 Colorado, USA,
 demonstrates interest in
 two bar-headed geese that
 SL share his exhibit. Photo C
 1996 by Marco Herranz.



. .





Notable birth

The first Baird's tapir birth in Europe
occurred on August 26, 1998, in
Wuppertal, Germany. The baby, a
female named Susanna, is doing very
well. The dam is Tanya, born at the
San Diego Zoo and exported to
Wuppertal from Riverbanks Zoo,
South Carolina, USA, in 1996. The
sire is Tonka, born at the Columbus
Zoo September 1993 and exported to
Wuppertal in 1994. This was the first
offspring for Tonka, the ninth for
Tanya, who was 18 at the time of the
birth. The Wuppertal Zoo also has a
second male,Jasper, born at the
Virginia Zoo, USA, in 1991.



Census

At the end of 1997, Rick Barongi
reported that there were approximately
200 Malayan tapirs in zoos worldwide.
Of these, 50 were in the U.S., 42 in
Europe, 21 in Japan, and 87 in other
Asian zoos.
 In September, 1998, ISIS reported
 the tapirs in member facilities as:
 (males.females.unknown.births last 6
 months)
 i pinchaque 3.2.0.0 2 zoos
 T bairdii 26.11.0.2 17 zoos
 indicus 61.71.2.4 51 zoos
 Sterrestris 94.87.1.15 74 zoos
 T. terrestris 5.7.0.2 4 zoos
 This data is listed on the web quarterly
 at: httpV//www.worldzoo.org


Tapir Consevatlon, Newsletter ol the IUCWSSC Tapir Specialist Group Edtor: Sharon Maola, PO. Box 1787. Belize City, Belize E-mail: BelizeZoo@bUl.nel / page 19