Tapirs are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America and Southeast Asia. They are one of three extant branches of Perissodactyla, alongside equines and rhinoceroses. Only a single genus, Tapirus, is currently extant. Tapirs migrated into South America during the Pleistocene epoch from North America after the formation of the Isthmus of Panama as part of the Great American Interchange. Tapirs were formerly present across North America, but became extinct in the region at the end of the Late Pleistocene, around 12,000 years ago.
Tapir showing the flehmen response
Malayan tapir skull
Baird's tapir skull
South American tapir skull
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern subregion of the Americas.
Scheme for geographic regions and subregions used by the United Nations Statistics Division
A composite relief image of South America
The Gran Roque village, the largest settlement of the Los Roques Archipelago, Venezuela
The prehistoric Cueva de las Manos, or "Cave of the Hands", in Argentina