Back in 1996 Sheryl Todd started a Web site. It was a personal site, and she had a "thing" for tapirs, so she included some photos, stories, and general information about these animals. She had raised two of them, Stanley and Mona, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That was just before the Endangered Species Acts made it impossible for people to keep tapirs as pets. She learned a lot about them, and along with Robert A. Wilson, formed the Tapir Research Institute of Claremont, California. They studied tapirs when they visited zoos and wrote endless letters to people who knew things about tapirs. They kept records of their own tapirs and wrote one or two articles that were published in books and journals. They published some material on their own and sent it to everyone they knew who was interested in tapirs - including zoos and museums.
The tapir part of Sheryl's Web site was called The Tapir Gallery. She put up some tapir pictures, but that's not why it's called a "gallery." She envisioned a Web site like a tree with branches or a museum with halls (called "galleries"), and that's how The Tapir Gallery got its name. It was a branch of the Web site that would be filled with tapirs, like the branching halls of a natural history museum. (She realizes she just mixed two perfectly good metaphors, but oh, well.)
The Tapir Gallery went online on March 15, 1996, while Sheryl was living in Palisade, Colorado. Tapir fans began to find the pages and asked how they could help these endangered animals. They also asked how they could get posters, t-shirts, and stuffed tapirs. Eventually Sheryl located a tapir poster printed in Colombia and her friend Kate (another tapir fan) told her where she could get a stuffed tapir toy to sell online. It seemed like a good idea to find and sell tapir items to help raise funds for tapir conservation. And so, The Tapir Gallery Gift Shop was born about 1997. The store grew to include other animals, and the name has changed, but the tapir gift shop remains a special part of Tapir and Friends Wildlife World, and money earned still goes to help protect tapirs and their habitats.
There is a lot more to this story, and I will add pictures to make the page more fun. A Web site is always a work in progress. Meanwhile, here are some links that will tell you more about who we are, what we do, and why. Thanks for stopping in. I hope you enjoy your stay.
~ Sheryl