18 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
IMMATURE GIANT TAI’IR, TAPIRELLA 
BA1RDI 
This young animal was received at the Zoological 
Park October 7, 1!)22 
but well loaded up with pneumonia, and sur¬ 
vived only five days. 
Truly this record reveals the humiliating fact 
that the directors of the world’s zoological gar¬ 
dens and the curators of America’s museums have 
been slow on the draw in regard to 'Tapirella 
bairdi. We present herewith an illustration of 
the really fine specimen that has for some years 
been on exhibition in the Carnegie Museum at 
Pittsburgh. Dr. W. J. Holland, for a quarter 
of a century the Director of that institution, 
has a keen eye for zoological rarities, and the 
number that he lias achieved for that institution 
is really remarkable. I have found that it is 
not safe to assume that a rare animal does not 
exist in any of the museums of the United 
States until we have sounded out Pittsburgh. 
But the Field Columbian Museum is ready to 
answer present when giant tapirs are called for, 
and its mounted specimen is sufficiently like the 
one in Pittsburgh that it might well pass as a 
duplicate. 
In the Bulletin of the Zoological Society for 
May 1922, we published an illustration of the 
large and beautifully mounted head of the 
Tapirella bairdi that was shot in February 1916 
on the Isthmus of Panama by Colonel David T. 
Abercrombie. With commendable foresight and 
diligence the sportsman carefully preserved the 
skin of the head and neck, and also the skull 
of the specimen that he shot under very interest¬ 
ing circumstances. A long and narrow island 
was selected as the theatre of a hunting opera¬ 
tion. Across the middle of it, from side to side, 
a twenty-foot wide swath was cut through the 
jungle, so that animals crossing it might be seen 
of man. Then a game drive was made from the 
farther end of the island, and when this tapir 
charged into the open it fell at close range to 
Colonel Abercrombie’s rifle. He and his com¬ 
panions estimated the weight of the specimen 
at 72D pounds; and in view of Colonel Aber¬ 
crombie’s extensive experience in the Quarter¬ 
master’s Department in the business of handling 
weight goods and loading ships, I am convinced 
that his estimate of the weight is sufficiently 
near the mark that we can accept it as authori¬ 
tative. Colonel Abercrombie carefully measured 
the dead animal in the flesh with the following 
results: 
Length of head and body 7 feet 1% inches. 
Girth of neck 2 feet 5 inches. 
Girth behind forelegs 4 feet 11 inches. 
Overhang of nose beyond chin 6 1 /? inches. 
The height of the mounted specimen in the 
Field Columbian Museum is 37 inches. 
For nearly five years we have been importun¬ 
ing residents of Panama, and travellers thereto, 
to take all the measures that were necessary to 
obtain and deliver to the Zoological Park one or 
more specimens of the Baird’s tapir. These 
requests were supplemented by offers of sub¬ 
stantial sums of money for the first specimen. 
After innumerable failures and disappointments, 
at last a combination of dogs, Indians and white 
men succeeded in obtaining a baby tapir, and 
keeping it alive for a few months. As soon as 
practicable it was shipped to New York, feeding 
in transit on sugar cane, and it finally reached 
us on October 7, 1922. The frail little creature, 
frail because of unsuitable food and a long, 
hard journey in weather too cold for its con¬ 
stitution, stood twenty-one inches high, measur¬ 
ing thirty-two inches in length of head and 
body, and weighing thirty-eight pounds. Its 
coat of hair was woolly in texture, quite 
abundant and so dark brown in color as to make 
the animal seem almost black. It was not only 
