372 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Malay Tapir 



ACROCODIA INDICA (Desmarest) 



Tapirus indicus "Cuvier" Desmarest, Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat., vol. 32, p. 458, 



1819. (Malay Peninsula.) 

 FIGS.: Geoffroy and Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mammif., pi. 303, 1825; Gervais, 



Hist. Nat. Mammif., pt. 2, pi. 51, 1855; Royal Nat. Hist., vol. 2, p. 458, 



fig., 1894; Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1908, p. 786, fig.; Kerr, 1927, pi. 7; 



Jour. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. 37, no. 1, suppl., pi. 34, 1934; Pocock, 



1937, p. 710, fig. 



It is generally agreed that this interesting animal of the Malay 

 Peninsula and Archipelago deserves and requires protection, though 

 its numbers may not yet be reduced to the danger point. 



The general form is heavy; limbs short and stout; tail short; 

 ears oval; eyes small; nose and upper lip produced into a short 

 proboscis; front feet four-toed; hind feet three-toed; head, limbs, 

 and front part of body brownish black; body behind the shoulders, 

 including rump and upper part of thighs, and ear tips grayish white. 

 Height at shoulder, 36 to 42 inches. Young brownish black, spotted 

 and streaked with brownish yellow and white. (Blanford, 1891, 

 pp. 478-479.) 



Malay Peninsula and adjacent region. Blanford (1891, p. 479) 

 reported the Tapir's northern limit at about lat. 15 N. in Tenas- 

 serim, but Arthur S. Vernay extended the range about 3 farther 

 north, on the Burmo-Siamese frontier (Jour. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 

 vol. 6, p. 318, 1924). 



Its status in Burma is discussed by Peacock (1933, pp. 201-202) : 



Tapirs are found only in the Tenasserim forests in southernmost Burma. 

 They are found only in very dense evergreen forests, but are much more 

 common than their retiring habits would lead one to believe. I found tapirs 

 to be very common indeed along the Big Tenasserim River and in the 

 Victoria Point Range in the Mergui Forest Division. Tapirs are generally 

 found in pairs or solitary. . . . 



The tapir appears to be singularly blessed in that neither man nor the 

 carnivora appear to be particularly keen on hunting it. ... 



There can be no pleasure or object in shooting a gentle, shy animal that 

 does not bear even an insignificant trophy. I have heard of tapir being 

 shot only on two occasions. 



Tapirs are wholly protected animals under existing game laws. 



"The distribution of the Tapir in Siam is very imperfectly known, 

 but it seems to occur in Peninsular and South-western Siam. Said 

 to be fairly common in Patani, and recorded from Hat Sanuk and 

 Hue Sai near the Siam-Tenasserim frontier." (Gyldenstolpe, 1919, 

 p. 170.) 



Gairdner (1915, p. 141) reports finding tracks of the Tapir in the 

 Petchaburi Valley, Siam, and adds: "They are never, I believe, 

 intentionally shot by jungle folk, who look upon these rather 



