Tapirus terrestris
Silhouette: J. N. Wiegers · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris), also commonly called the Brazilian tapir (from the Tupi tapi'ira), the Amazonian tapir, the maned tapir, the lowland tapir, anta (Brazilian Portuguese), and sachavaca (literally "bushcow", in mixed Quechua and Spanish), is one of the four recognized species in the tapir family (of the order Perissodactyla, with the mountain tapir, the Malayan tapir, and the Baird's tapir). It is the largest surviving native terrestrial mammal in the Amazon.
Most classifications also include Tapirus kabomani (also known as the dwarf black tapir or the kabomani tapir) as also belonging to the species Tapirus terrestris (Brazilian tapir), despite its questionable existence and the overall lack of information on its habits and distribution. The specific epithet derives from arabo kabomani, the word for tapir in the local Paumarí language. The formal description of this tapir did not suggest a common name for the species. The Karitiana people call it the little black tapir. It is, purportedly, the smallest tapir species, even smaller than the mountain tapir (T. pinchaque), which had been considered the smallest. T. kabomani is allegedly also found in the Amazon rainforest, where it appears to be sympatric with the well-known South American tapir (T. terrestris). When it was described in December of 2013, T. kabomani was the first odd-toed ungulate discovered in over 100 years. However, T. kabomani has not been officially recognized by the Tapir Specialist Group as a distinct species; recent genetic evidence further suggests it is likely a subspecies of T. terrestris. In 2024, the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) has officially ruled that the binomen Tapirus pygmaeus has priority over Tapirus kabomani given that they are synonyms after a 2014 petition. Wikipedia →
Call0:38
Ecuador · 2025
© Marc Anderson · XC983493 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | El Impenetrable National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 3 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 5 | Manu National Park | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 6 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 8 | Tambopata National Reserve | 🇵🇪 Peru | |
| 9 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
No species of the same family or order lives in Iguaçu National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other mammals.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a South American Tapir sighting in Iguaçu National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 10th most-seen of the 13 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a South American Tapir in Iguaçu National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February, May, September and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most South American Tapir sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate South American Tapir sightings, Iguaçu National Park ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in Emas National Park (Brazil, about 70%), El Impenetrable National Park (Argentina, about 60%) and Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the South American Tapir is recorded against all the mammals logged in Iguaçu National Park (12 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
