Nicaragua fights to save its endangered tapirs

Ancient relatives of horses and rhinoceroses, Tapirs are largest land mammals in Central America have been classified as endangered or vulnerable and thirteen of these pig-like animals with sloping snouts inhabit in the bushes of Ticuantepe Zoo, in eastern Nicaragua unaware of danger they face. 

Human encroachment and climate change have decimated the woodland habitat of the Baird's tapir, one of five species left in the world.

According to Eduardo Sacasa, a wildlife expert, the Baird's tapir, considered at risk of extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is the “most threatened” quadruped in Nicaragua.

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It faces "flat-out deforestation, encroaching farmland, illegal sales and poaching, because people eat them", Sacasa said.

The five extant species of tapirs are the Brazilian tapir, the Malayan tapir, the Baird's tapir, the kabomani tapir, and the mountain tapir, of which four have been categorised as endangered.