Asian tapir mother and her baby on a sign
at the Bangkok Zoo, Thailand

A sign in the Bangkok Zoo shows this very nice drawing of a "Malayan tapir and calf." The mother may weight around 800 pounds, while the baby probably only weighed 10 or 15 pounds at birth. Striped to provide camouflage, the infant will begin losing the spots and stripes as it grows older, but may retain vestiges of its juvenile coloring into its first year. The black and white adult coloring and pattern may start to emerge at about four to six months of age, but won't be fully developed until the tapir is about a year old. A cross-fading takes place as the baby grows. At a few months of age, the little tapir will have both a "saddle blanket" and stripes. This picture of the sign was taken October 3, 1996.