i saw a tapir in the wild today!

[Gato Moteado]

it's true. i was walking the trails in braulio carrillo national park and all of a sudden there was a huge commotion in the brush about 25 feet in front of me. i thought i had spooked a large bird but instead of seeing anything fly up from the ground i saw a huge mammal rise up and run about 20 feet and then stop. it was huge. it stuck around for several minutes and i watched it the whole time.

what a trip.

[XemaSab]

1. Epic!

:bounce:

[Gato Moteado]

4. it was an amazing rush

nt

[Lautremont]

2. That sounds pretty crazy!

Did it try to lick you? I have heard that's their thing - they try to lick anything within a three-foot radius.

[Gato Moteado]

3. i didn't get close enough to it

hopefully i'll get a chance to see more and get closer

[Maestro]

5. Very cool!

Where are the pics! ;) Seriously, though, that had to be exciting!

[Gato Moteado]

6. no pics

:(

[Arugula Latte]

7. I love tapirs. I saw them in Costa Rica.

There were a couple tame ones that hung out at the lodge I stayed at.

[Gato Moteado]

8. what lodge did you stay at?

was it in the osa peninsula?

[Arugula Latte]

10. That was in '89, so I can't remember the lodge names (except for La Mariposa)

We were in San Jose, Puntarenas, Manuel Antonio (where we stayed at La Mariposa), Monteverde, Arenal volcano ...

Costa Rica: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[pitohui]

9. that's pretty cool

i might be a little scared, those things are not small!

[Gato Moteado]

13. they're big.....but it didn't appear to be aggressive

it seemed to just go about its business after it realized we weren't predators.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

11. Next time

make sure to get pictures of yourself riding it -- Okay?????

[Gato Moteado]

12. now that would be cool!

nt

[Lisa]

14. cool!

One of my professors told me that when she was doing her graduate field work, one of her classmates was studying tapirs ... he diligently mapped and categorized several hundred acres of habitat, but during that whole field season, he never saw a live tapir! He saw plenty of tracks, scat, etc. -- but it got to be a standing joke that "Joe has no actual proof that they exist".