Category:

The Tapir and the Cable-lock

Keerthikrutha Seetharaman

“One night, a tapir found a cable lock that held a camera trap. She wanted the cable part. So, she tugged, not once, not twice, but thrice pausing before each time. After two minutes of trying, she told herself, ‘This is just too tight!’ and walked away.” These images are of Baird’s tapir (Tapirus bairdii), an endangered and endemic mammal of Central America. They were captured in an infrared camera trap set up by me and my field assistants for a study to understand vertebrate habitat drivers.