The London Zoo website shows the institution’s new baby Malayan tapir (Tapirus indicus), which, like all baby tapirs, is striped and spotted, looking for all the world like a mammalian watermelon:
First of all this baby, a male, needs a name. You can vote on the site above, though voting is supposed to have closed June 24. Your choices were (are) these:
I don’t understand why animals in zoos have to be given names indicative of where they come from. Why can’t we choose among, say, “Fred,” “Hugh,” “Jerry,” or “Percy”? After all, these are now British tapirs. At any rate, you can see the ultimate choice at the London Zoo Twitter feed, though I don’t think the name’s been announced.
What’s more interesting is why the babies look like watermelons. Now there are four species of tapirs, and in each case the juveniles look like the one…
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Mark Solock Blog 