Tapirs (extant/living species; Tapirus spp.) Fact Sheet: Distribution & Habitat

• Distribution: wide distribution (Asia and South America) indicates they originated from an ancient lineage (Eocene)
• Malayan tapir:
  • Extant: Malaya and Sumatra; extremely fragmented
  • Formerly: Burma and parts of Thailand
• Baird's tapir:
  • Extant: Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, southern Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Republic of Panama, southern Mexico (Oaxaca)
    • Distribution is sparse and extremely fragmented
    • Extremely rare in other places, such as Colombia
  • Formerly: El Salvador, and apparently Ecuador
• Lowland tapir: Broadest range of the 5 species
  • Extant: most South American rain forests
• Mountain tapir: High elevation
  • Extant: Andean regions of Columbia, Ecuador and Peru
• T. kabomani: Recently described (Cozzuol et al. 2013)
  • Amazonas, Rondonia and Mato Grosso states in Brazil; parts of Amazonas Department in Colombia
  • Possibly eastern Amazon along the Guiana Shield

• Wet, tropical climate preferred
• Marsh and swamp areas
• Tropical rainforests or tropical montane forests
• Mangroves
• Lowland (Brazilian) tapir may occupy savannah or tropical dry deciduous forests near permanent water source
• T. kabomani in mixed habitat of forest and open savanna, most often (Cozzuol et al. 2013)

Tapirs live in Central America, South America, and southeast Asia.

Red box: Malay tapir
Green box: Baird's tapir
Orange box: Andean/Mountain tapir
Black box: Lowland tapir

Note: The oldest fossil tapirs were unearthed in North America, with later representatives in Asia and South America. There are no living North American species; only one survives in Asia.

Adapted from www.d-maps.com according to IUCN fact sheets. Click on links, above, for IUCN detailed distribution.

Cozzuol et al. (2013)
Eisenberg (1997)
IUCN (2009)