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Israel's Ramat Gan Safari Park welcomed their first-ever newborn male tapir this Saturday. Born to mother Passiflora and father Meir, the rare baby tapir joins a 12-month-old sister, Papaya. The baby tapir's feisty father, named after Israeli basketball star Meir Tapiro, had to be removed from the enclosure to ensure the newborn's safety.
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"'[The newborn] was very healthy, he weighs five kilos. He's following her, he's nursing. It makes us all very proud and hopeful that we can continue breeding these endangered animals successfully," trainer Gali Burkovich told the UK Telegraph.
Native to Southeast Asia and South America, the endangered tapir is a pig-sized mammal with a short snout. The young tapir will lose the white stripes on his coat as he ages.
According to the Times of Israel, the baby tapir's "prominent male organ, a well-known and sometimes alarming feature of the species," allowed keepers to immediately identify his sex.
Here's the baby tapir with his mom:
With his sister:
Eating, adorably:
The Telegraph also has squee-inducing video of the tapir sniffing around, peeing on the bushes and hanging out with mom:
It's hump day, so here's an extra dose of baby tapir cuteness from the tapirs at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Watch it run around the 0:26 mark:
