June 2, 2009
Tapirs, like the one above, are being studied by researchers at Taman Negara, Malaysia’s largest national park.
For an interesting article by Anthony King, about “New Research on Malaysia’s Odd, Elusive Tapir,” see the New York Times.
The Malay tapir, the largest of the world’s four tapir species, remained largely invisible to science until recently.
Credit: Malayan Tapir PHVA: Malaysia
Tapir replicas and Philadelphia Zoo postcard: Tapir Preservation Fund, a member of the IUCN/SSC Tapir Specialist Group.
BTW, there may be yet another surprise ahead in terms of a new tapir species. We may have this to look forward to being verified in the future:
Van Roosmalen’s tapir. Unknown Hoofed mammal of South America.
Distribution: Rio Madeira drainage, Amazonas state, Brazil.
Significant sighting: In 1996–1997, Dutch zoologist Marc van Roosmalen glimpsed what he considers to be a new species of Tapir (Tapirus sp.) in the Amazon jungle.
Source: Laurie Goering, “Amazon Primatologist Shakes Family Tree for New Monkeys,” Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1999.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Filed under Breaking News, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Megafauna, Weird Animal News