What kind of animal is tapir?

There are many legends about tapirs. According to legend, tapirs are animals that feed on dreams, also known as dream tapirs, so what kind of animals are tapirs? Is it really that amazing?

What kind of animal is a tapir?

Tapirs are the most primitive odd-hoofed species in existence, maintaining the original characteristics of the forelimb, 4 toes, hindlimb, 3 toes and so on. The body is like a pig, has a retractable short nose, is good at swimming and diving, and is herbivorous. There are only 5 species of the genus Scutellaria in the family Cerambycidae.

1. Asian tapirs (Indian tapirs) are distributed in Southeast Asia from Myanmar and southern Thailand to Sumatra through the Malay Peninsula. They are large, black and white and easy to identify. The three tapirs in America all have a single body color and are mostly smaller than the former.

two。 Chinese and American tapirs, which range from Mexico to Colombia, are the largest living land animals in Latin America.

3. Lowland tapirs are distributed in vast areas of South America, and their shape is similar to that of Chinese and American tapirs. They are the most widely distributed and most numerous tapirs in existence.

4. Mountain tapirs are distributed in the northern Andes of South America, with small size, long and slightly curly hair, and are more adapted to the cold environment of the mountains. Although tapirs from Asia and America have different body colors, young tapirs are similar and have flower spots on their bodies. All are endangered species.

5. The Cappomani tapir is a tapir found in Brazil and Colombia in 2013. It is similar to but much smaller than lowland tapirs, with darker hair than lowland tapirs.

II. Legends

In Chinese and Japanese legends (one said to be derived from the Book of Mountains and Seas), tapirs (which eat dreams are also called "dream tapirs") are immortal beasts that eat human nightmares. Dream tapirs are a kind of fantasy creatures. according to legend, they feed on dreams, devour dreams, and can also reproduce devoured dreams. It is described as in every night when the sky is covered with hazy moonlight, it sets out from the deep forest to the place where people live and sucks people's dreams. It will be afraid to wake people who are asleep while eating dreams, because it is timid by nature and will only make a soft cry like a lullaby in the night. So people sleep more and more deeply with such a sound, and tapirs slowly take people's dreams into their pockets one by one. After eating people's dreams, the tapir quietly returns to the jungle and continues its mysterious life.

At present, tapirs are very rare, and the existing tapirs are mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and Latin America. They are so rare that ordinary people may only see them in zoos.