Image: Baird's tapir mother with baby (92151)
Description: Baird's tapir mother and juvenile, Alajuela Province, Costa Rica. This is an endangered species, with only 3,000 - 5,000 left in the world. Famously secretive and primarily nocturnal, so this was a lucky moment. We went on a hike and found most of the park closed due to flooding. We explored where we could, seeing almost nothing outside of wet plants (and a famously bright blue river, Rio Celeste, which was brown that day). Just when we were hiking back out, we saw these tapirs foraging in the distance. Apparently sometimes on especially rainy days they're seen during daytime hours. After a short while of standing still and watching these two, they decided to cross the path right in front of us! For the rest of the trip, we'd mention this experience to locals/guides, and none had ever seen a baby in the wild before (and adults only a handful of times). Extraordinarily lucky, memorable experience.
Author: Rhododendrites
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License: CC-BY-SA-3.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Attribution Required?: Yes
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