Sunday, June 11, 2006

Facts About BABY TAPIRS:

1. They look like watermelons. Cute, snouted, four-legged watermelons.

2. Those cute stripes and dots? They'll disappear as the Tapir matures. First the Tapir'll be all striped and dotted with dark socks on, and then they'll be knee socks, and then they'll be dark brown pants, and then it'll just be a boring, dark colored tapir. With no stripes or dots.

3. Word of the day: prehensile. "Adapted for seizing, grasping, or holding, especially by wrapping around an object." An adjective used to describe organs in animals that have adapted to be able to grasp or hold things, examples being the trunks of elephants, the tongues of giraffes, the tails of monkeys, and the snouts of tapirs.

Does anyone else get a little shiver when they think about snouts and trunks as hand-like organs?

4. Tapirs are: Mammals, vegetarians, nocturnal, forest-dwelling, water-loving, not aggressive, and endangered.

5. In China, Japan, and Korea, the word for Tapir comes from Baku, a spirit in Chinese Mythology that eats dreams. And looks like a Tapir.

6. This Facts About post is brought to you by Logan.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

So when I go to Korea, I need to look out for a Chinese dream-eating myth that looks like a furry watermelon?

Anonymous said...

That's one of my favorite animals at the STL zoo! The baby is so cute. Stripes and polka dots.. who knew it could work so well together?

Great to see and Matt you the other night!

SarahReznor said...

cute!!!

Lizzle said...

A dream-eating watermelon with a prehensile snout... It all sounds cute until 4 AM when my nightmares have run wild with the concept!

Virenda said...

I went to the San Diego Zoo and say one and it was so awesome. To me they look like HUGE rats but watermelon works too.

That pic is so cute.

Logan said...

Yay! Tapirs are the shit!

v said...

I wonder if they make good pets?

Plus they could bring you a can of soda with their snouts.

Great post!

Unknown said...

When I was a kid, I went to the zoo and I saw a Tapir. I asked my Mom what sort of noise they made and it farted. I'll never forget that. Tapirs have a sense of humour.

markus said...

tht really does look like a watermelon!