New Species of Dwarf Tapir Discovered in Amazon Rainforest

This magical moment between a pair of Kobomani tapirs was caught on camera trap in the southwest Amazon. Photo courtesy of Fabrício R. Santos. It may seem hard for a 250-pound animal to elude scientists, but a species of tapir managed to do just that for hundreds of years. Now details of the new, miniature tapir that lives in the Amazon rainforest are finally being brought to light. Tapirs are elusive, friendly and mostly nocturnal. Since 1865, there have been four known species of tapir---one in Asia and three in Central and South America. This new find is number five. The tapir species is new to science, but has been known to and hunted by tribes in the Amazon rainforests of Colombia and Brazil for millennia. Researchers tipped their hat to this fact in their selection of a species name, Tapirus kabomani, which means tapir in the local Paumari language.