r/tapirs Aug 12 '24

Orphaned albino lowland tapir calf found in Brazil, 2020 -- biologists' report. The baby was taken to the Sorocaba Zoo.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354895944_Albinism_in_lowland_tapir_Tapirus_terrestris_A_case_of_an_orphaned_calf_tapir_from_Atlantic_Forest
26 Upvotes

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u/TapirTrouble Aug 12 '24

Short video of her, a week or two after she was found.

https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/bom-dia-sp/video/anta-albina-foi-encontrada-na-cidade-de-piedade-9050394.ghtml

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGz8X8qDBwU

I thought she looked like a white piglet – she was so young that her snout was quite short.

https://g1.globo.com/sp/sorocaba-jundiai/noticia/2020/11/24/filhote-raro-de-anta-albina-e-resgatado-em-piedade.ghtml

https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2020/11/25/especie-rara-filhote-de-anta-albina-e-resgatado-em-piedade-sp.htm

Being bottle-fed

https://www.jornalcruzeiro.com.br/sorocaba/filhote-de-anta-albina-rara-e-resgatada-desnutrida-em-piedade/

https://conexaoplaneta.com.br/blog/filhote-de-anta-albina-e-encontrado-sozinho-e-resgatado-no-interior-de-sp/filhote-de-anta-albina-e-encontrado-sozinho-e-resgatado-no-interior-de-sp-reproducao-instagram/

After she had started to recover

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIthq2VL4H3/

https://new.reddit.com/r/tapirs/comments/k6wr24/an_albino_lowland_tapir_calf_has_been_rescued_in/

She will be almost 4 years old by now, which I think is old enough for tapirs to breed. I don’t know if she’s still at the Sorocaba Zoo, or has been released into the wild. I know that there are at least two wild albino tapirs in the Brazilian Atlantic forest, but the baby not being used to being out on her own, might be an argument against that (one of the albino males looked rather thin compared with a regular-coloured tapir in the same photos, plus other albino animals have had health issues).

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Second-albino-lowland-tapir-identified-at-Legado-das-Aguas-Reserve-with-notch-in-the_fig2_341848779

https://blog.degruyter.com/albino-lowland-tapirs-discovered-in-the-brazilian-atlantic-forest/