Prague, Oct 17 (CTK) – A Malayan tapir was born in the Prague zoo on Thursday, the zoo has written on its website, adding that this is the first calf of this endangered species to be born in Prague, except for the one that was born in 1976 but died on the same day.
The visitors can see the calf, with dotted fur, in the tapirs’ enclosure as from Saturday, the zoo wrote.
“I was looking forwards to seeing this dotted star since August 2010 when we acquired a couple of Malaysian tapirs born in the Edinburgh zoo. However, they were siblings, which is why a chance of an offspring appeared only with the arrival of the new male, Niko, in 2011,” Prague zoo director Miroslav Bobek said.
The young tapir’s mother is Indah, born in the Edinburgh zoo in 2008. It is her first offspring.
Niko, the father, was born in Berlin in 1996.
Out of the Czech zoos, only those in Prague and Zlin keep Malaysian tapirs. The Prague zoo has kept the species since 1967, but its previous attempts to breed it were unsuccessful.
Only 52 Malaysian tapirs live in captivity in Europe.
In the wild, the species is endangered, as its population has halved during the past three generations, mainly due to the devastation of rain forests by humans.
The Malaysian tapir’s wild population is estimated at 5,000. They survive in Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Sumatra.
