Tapirs (extant/living species; Tapirus spp.) Fact Sheet: Diet & Feeding

• Opportunistic feeders
  • Browsers (herbs, shrubs, twigs)
  • Grazers (use incisors like horses to bite off grass)
  • Frugivores (actively search for fruit and berries)
• Eat all parts of ferns, horsetails, palm fruits and hearts, aquatic plants
• Leaves of tropical trees
• Bromeliads and their berries

• Use muscular proboscis when foraging - grasp vegetation, and move items into their mouths
• Known to consume 34 kg (75 lb) of forage in one night
• Plants are consumed regardless of thorns or insects
• In managed care, consume varied diet; a favorite food is bananas
• Crave salt
• Hindgut fermenters with an enlarged cecum (like all Perissodactyls)
  • Suited to high-fiber, low-quality diet
  • Long digestive period (4-23 days)
• Defecate in water

Tapirs feed on types of leaves, grasses, fruits, and berries.

They are also known to take farmers' crops.

Image credit: © San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. All rights reserved.

Olmos (1999)
Witmer et al. (1999)