Mountain Tapir

The Mountain Tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) is the smallest of the four tapir species and the only one adapted to high-altitude life, inhabiting cloud forests and páramo grasslands in the northern Andes at elevations typically between 2,000 and 4,700 meters. It is recognized by its thick, woolly dark-brown coat, which insulates it against the cold of its montane environment, and by the distinctive white fringe around its lips and ear tips. As a large-bodied browser and grazer, it plays a direct role in shaping vegetation structure: its feeding habits and movement through dense cloud forest contribute to seed dispersal across elevation gradients, supporting plant diversity in some of the world's most biodiverse mountain ecosystems.

The Mountain Tapir is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, with a population estimated at fewer than 2,500 mature individuals according to the IUCN SSC Tapir Specialist Group. The primary threats driving its decline are habitat loss through agricultural expansion, cattle ranching, and the burning of páramo for pasture, compounded by hunting pressure in some areas. Climate change poses a growing long-term threat, as it shifts and compresses the high-altitude habitats the species depends on, leaving populations increasingly fragmented across a shrinking elevational range.