It is said that this is the evil-repelling beast that feeds on copper and iron!

Has everyone watched the drama "Border Water Past"?

Recently, people keep asking

The mythical beast "tapir" that appears in the play

What is its origin?

Today let's talk about

"Bianshui Past", picture source: Internet

Seeing the tapir for the first time

Most people will

The dull, clumsy look left a deep impression.

Especially when he lifts his nose and opens his mouth as if laughing.

Use "like a pig but not a pig, like an elephant but not an elephant"

To describe it most appropriately

Image source: Internet

In our country, tapirs have been mythical beasts that ward off evil spirits since ancient times. The saying of the dream-eating tapir originated after the legend of tapirs warding off evil spirits spread to Japan. Coupled with the legend in Southeast Asia that picking up a tapir brings good luck (the TV series may be the way legends of this era were created and spread, and people hundreds of years later would not know the source), people really have a lot of hope in it.

Bronze ritual vessel tapir zun, kept in Baoji Bronze Museum

Image source: Museum

The Classic of Mountains and Seas says, "This beast eats iron and copper, and nothing else." However, the plump and sturdy-looking tapir is a vegetarian in real life and never eats meat. Plant buds, leaves, fruits, grass, and even aquatic plants are their favorites!

Image source: CCTV Science and Education

Tapiridae is one of the only three families of mammals in the order Perissodactyla, with only one genus and five species left. They can be divided into five species: mountain tapir, Central American tapir, South American tapir, Kabomani tapir and Malayan tapir. The first four species are distributed in America, and only the Malayan tapir is distributed in Southeast Asia.

Malayan tapir

The Malay tapir, also known as the Asian tapir and the Indian tapir, is distributed in the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar in Southeast Asia, and lives in low-altitude tropical rainforests.

Image source: Museum

The Malayan tapir is 1.8-2.4 meters long, with a tail length of 5-10 centimeters, a shoulder height of 90-107 centimeters, and a weight of 250-320 kilograms. It has a round body, thick skin and hard hair, and all parts of the body are black except for the middle and back parts where there is white hair.

Mountain tapir

The mountain tapir, also known as the hairy tapir and the Andean tapir, is found in the Andes Mountains in Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru.

Image source: asobioq.github.io

The mountain tapir is about 1.8 meters long, 0.8-0.9 meters tall at the shoulder, and weighs 150-225 kilograms. Most of the body is covered with long brown to black hair, and the lips are white. Adult mountain tapirs have two hairless areas on their buttocks. They live in mountain forests at an altitude of 1,400-4,700 meters, and mainly feed on shrubs, ferns and other plants.

Central American tapir

The Central American tapir lives in the dense jungles of southeastern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.

Image source: Shanghai Wild Animal Park

The Central American tapir is usually 2 meters long, 1.1 meters tall at the shoulder, and weighs 220-300 kilograms. There is a milky white mark on the face and throat, and a dark spot on each cheek. The rest of the body is dark brown or grayish brown.

South American tapir

The South American tapir, also known as the Brazilian tapir or lowland tapir, lives in the Amazon rainforest and near water in the Amazon Basin in South America. Their distribution ranges from Venezuela, Colombia and Guyana in the north to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay in the south, and from Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador in the west.

Image source: Animal World

The tapir is 1.7-2.1 meters long, 0.7-1.1 meters high at the shoulder, and weighs 200-250 kilograms. The tapir is dark brown with a lighter belly. The neck and ear edges are white, and there is a short, upright mane from the top of the head to the nape of the neck, which is black. The hair on the body is short and smooth.

Kabomani tapir

The Kabomani tapir, also known as the small black tapir, is a species of tapir discovered in Brazil and Colombia in 2013. The Kabomani tapir is the first large mammal discovered since the saola was discovered in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1992, and the first new odd-toed ungulate discovered in nearly a hundred years.

Image source: Animal World

It is about 1.3 meters long, 0.9 meters high at the shoulder, and weighs about 110 kilograms. It is smaller than the mountain tapir, which was previously considered the smallest tapir. The adult size is basically the same as that of a sika deer.