"Scotty," a Baird's tapir
at the Belize Zoo
Photo © Copyright 2000 Belize Zoo
Sharon Matola, Director of the Belize Zoo, sent us this picture of one of their tapirs, Scotty, in June, 2000. As you can read on the sign, tapirs mark their territory with urine. If a visitor gets in the way, they also get marked! Scotty's enclosure contains native plants of Belize. Sharon tells us that here, where the vegetation grows so fast, the tapirs do very little damage to it. This is not the case in North American and European Zoos, where vegetation has to be carefully protected or the tapirs will eat or trample it. In Belize, tapirs are called "tapir," but they are also called "mountain cow" or "danta." The tapir is the national animal of Belize.