If you have never personally interacted with a tapir, you probably conceive of them as placid, careful animals that run away and hide at the slightest sign of danger It may surprise you to learn that, if threatened, they are fierce fighters well capable of defending themselves against and even dismembering humans.
The four extant species of tapir are medium sized grazers that primarily inhabit forest biomes but prefer close proximity to bodies of water. All of them are threatened by habitat loss caused by human influence, and are generally perceived as shy and elusive.
Until 1892, however, there was a fifth species of tapir, one with a very different reputation.
The wetland tapir (tapirus floridensis) was a species of tapir endemic to the wetlands of the North American south east, with the largest population living in Florida's Everglades. Colloquially, it was also known as ‘mud bear’.
Driven by the evolutionary pressure exerted on it by the abundance of predators, primarily crocodilians, the wetland tapir grew to significantly larger sizes than its extant relatives, with size and built more similar to its cousin, the rhinoceros. Furthermore, wetland tapirs had longer canine teeth than other tapirs, allowing them to pierce the crocodilians’ natural armor.
In appearance, wetland tapirs were similar to the extant malayan tapirs, with a massive body supported by slender legs with hoofed toes. They lacked the black-white color pattern of the malayan tapirs, and were entirely black instead.
Wetland tapirs were exclusive herbivores. Due to their size, they consumed enormous amounts of plant matter each day. They spent even more time in the water than other tapirs, and primarily grazed on the sawgrass and algae growing in submerged parts of their habitat.
As most tapirs, wetland tapirs were generally solitary, but assembled into groups for childrearing. During this time, wetland tapirs became very defensive of their territory, often charging perceived threats directly upon the smallest provocation.
When European invaders first entered the Everglades, they found large mounds of rotting carcasses, both human and animal, strewn with feces. They assumed, in their usual racist fashion, that this was the work of particularly savage indigenous peoples, but they were wrong.
What they had actually found were charnel mounds constructed by groups of wetland tapirs: when the tapirs killed possible threats, they would drag the carcasses to locations on the edge of their territory, and pile them up there. They would then defecate on the pile.
The extent of this behavior’s effects is unclear. It was certainly a deterrent for all potential threats: do not enter, or you will end up like this. Additionally, strategic placement of these mounds on elevated terrain limits the contamination of the tapirs’ habitat. It might also have helped to attract black vultures, who not only feed on the contents of the mounds, but also engage in mutualistic behavior with multiple species of tapir, in which they remove ticks from the tapirs’ bodies. They likely were the only large predators that were allowed to approach breeding groups of wetland tapirs.
Although we know that the wetland tapir was known to western society as early as 1700, the oldest surviving firsthand English-language account of a wetland tapir dates to 1817. It was written by Sergeant Jonathan Heet, who entered the Everglades during the First Seminole War, an imperialist invasion of a territory inhabited by native Americans and formerly enslaved people.
Heet recounts finding a charnel mound that contained the corpses of six US American soldiers, still armed with their rifles. He later encountered a tapir from the group that had likely constructed the mound:
“It breached the surface of the water in front of the first of our canoes. It was huge, much larger than a bear, pitch black, and had a short trunk like that of an elephant. I had heard of the mud bears and their strength, but was shocked to watch it demolish a canoe and kill the two men on it as quickly as one would swat a fly. We shot at it, but it took eight shots for it to turn around and dive back into the water.”
He later observed a group of Seminole people harvesting vegetables that had been grown on a mound that seemed more fertile than the surrounding land, and whose earth was interspersed with bones. It is likely that the Seminole peoples used the mounds left behind by disbanding tapir groups to grow crops, as the remaining compost was rich in nutrients and high enough to prevent flooding.
With the American exploration and subsequent draining of the Everglades, wetland tapirs were gradually driven to extinction. The destruction of their habitat led to increased attacks on humans even outside of childrearing season. In response, local authorities offered bounties for hunted tapirs. Where earlier guns had been unable to significantly hurt wetland tapirs, through the use of modern guns and concerted efforts the remaining tapirs were driven to extinction by the end of the century.
The last known wetland tapir, a large female nicknamed ‘Mama Bear’, was killed in 1892. Her skeleton is still on display in Orlando, Florida. Although stories of supposed sightings are frequent to this day, no conclusive evidence of surviving specimens has been presented.
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