TAPIRS AND TIGELBOATS – DOES THE MALAYAN TAPIR STILL EXIST IN BORNEO?

Malayan tapirs, depicted in a handsome chromolithograph from 1903 (public domain)

Of the five modern-day species of tapir, four occur only in the New World and are uniformly dark brown/black in colour, whereas the fifth, the Malayan tapir Tapirus indicus, is an Old World speciality and is further differentiated by virtue of its 'saddle' - an area of striking white fur encompassing much of its torso and haunches (however, click here to check out a rare, all-black variant, known as Brevet's black tapir). Already known to exist in mainland Malaysia, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and the large Indonesian island of Sumatra, there is a good chance that this species' current distribution extends even further afield - onto the island of Borneo, where it supposedly died out only a few millennia ago during the Holocene, fossil remains having been found during cave excavations in the Borneo-situated Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah.

Over the years, a number of unconfirmed reports of tapirs existing in this extremely large yet still little-explored tropical island have been briefly documented in the literature, but these have incited conflicting opinions. Whereas, for instance, L.F. de Beaufort accordingly included Borneo within the accepted distribution range for T. indicus, Eric Mjöberg adopted a more circumspect stance, stating: "It is not yet certain that the tapir has been met with in Borneo, although there are persistent reports that an animal of its size and appearance exists in the interior of the country".

In 1949, however, Dr Tom Harrisson, then Curator of the Sarawak Museum, reported that tapirs were spied in Brunei (a small independent sultanate in Borneo) on two separate occasions some years earlier by Brunei resident E.E.F. Pretty, and he believed that the existence of such creatures in Borneo might yet be officially confirmed. Curiously, the Malayan tapir was featured on a 1909 postage stamp in a series issued by what was then North Borneo (now the Malaysian state of Sabah) that depicted species of animals supposedly native to this island. Wishful thinking perhaps - or an affirmation of reliable local knowledge that deserves formal acceptance by science?

The North Borneo postage stamp issued in 1909 that depicts a Malayan tapir (public domain)

When investigating the pedigree of any cryptozoological creature, we must always consider the possibility that the eyewitness reports ostensibly substantiating its existence are in truth nothing more than misidentifications of one or more species already known to science. In the case of Borneo's tapir, however, there is only one such species with which it might be confused - the Bornean bearded pig Sus barbatus. This beast possesses not only a long snout, but also a distinctly pale 'saddle' over its back and haunches.

Even so, with a total head-and-body length of 3.5-5.5 ft, a body height not exceeding 3 ft, and a weight of 330 lb, it falls far short of the Malayan tapir's stature - as the head-and-body length of this latter species (the largest of all modern-day tapirs) can exceed 8 ft, its shoulder height can reach 42 in, and its weight can typically be as much as 800 lb (but with certain exceptional specimens having weighed up to 1190 lb). Nor could the bearded pig be mistaken for immature tapirs that have not attained their full size - because just like those of the four American species, juvenile Malayan tapirs are striped, only acquiring their characteristic white-backed, unstriped appearance when adult.

In short, the bearded pig cannot be contemplated as a likely identity of supposed tapirs encountered in Borneo, but it does offer one item of interest with regard to this subject. Its distribution corresponds almost precisely with that of the Malayan tapir, except for one major difference - the bearded pig is known to exist on Borneo. Yet until near-Recent times during the present Holocene epoch, the Malayan tapir was known to occur here too (thereby greatly reducing the likelihood that any tapir living on this island today could belong to an unknown species). If the bearded pig could persist into the present day on Borneo, why not the tapir too? The island is more than sufficiently spacious to house a very respectable number of tapirs, and their ecological requirements are more than adequately catered for. Indeed, the absence of the Malayan tapir from Borneo is really far more of a mystery than its disputed existence there!

Bearded pig (public domain)

Ironically, it is very likely that the Malayan tapir's modern-day occurrence in Borneo would have been fully verified by now had it not been for an appalling instance of investigative apathy on the part of the scientific community not so long ago, which led to the disappearance of what seems to have been conclusive evidence for this species' persistence there. In November 1975, as recorded soon afterwards by Jan-Ove Sundberg in Pursuit, the Antara News Agency of Indonesia reported the capture in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) of an extraordinary creature that appeared (at least from the description given of it) to be an impossible hybrid of several radically different types of animal.

According to the report (and always assuming, of course, that this entire episode was not a fabrication or a dramatic distortion of some much more commonplace event), the captured creature's body was similar to that of a tiger, its neck resembled that of a lion, it had an elephant-like trunk and the ears of a cow, its legs recalled those of a goat but its feet had chicken-like claws, and it reputedly sported a goatee beard like a billy goat's. Emphasising its composite appearance, the news agency referred to this amalgamated animal as a 'tigelboat' - a portmanteau word presumably derived from 'TIGEr', 'Lion', 'Bird', and 'gOAT'.

In spite of its bizarre appearance (or because of it?), the 'tigelboat' apparently failed to elicit any interest from scientists - which is a tragedy. If only someone had taken the trouble to analyse its description methodically, a major zoological discovery might well have been made - for as I have shown in various of my writings, when considered carefully it can be readily translated to reveal a creature that can be identified after all.

Chromolithograph from 1864 depicting an adult Malayan tapir and its striped offspring (public domain)

Let us examine the features of the 'tigelboat' one at a time. If its body was similar to a tiger's, this must surely mean that it was striped. Equally, as the most noticeable aspect of a lion's neck is its mane, the tigelboat probably had a mane or a ridge of hair along its neck. An elephant-like trunk implies the presence of an elongated snout and upper lip, and cow-like ears would be relatively large and ovoid. If its legs recalled a goat's, then they must have been fairly long and sturdy (but not massively constructed), and chicken-like claws could be interpreted either as claws like those of certain mammalian carnivores or as distinctive, pointed hooves. As for its goatee, this might been merely a tuft of hair on its chin.

The tigelboat is an impossible hybrid no longer. Combine most of the translated features noted above, and the result is a description that can now be seen to portray very accurately a particular creature already familiar to science - a juvenile tapir. As already noted, unlike the adult the juvenile tapir is striped. Moreover, its ears are certainly large and ovoid, its limbs fairly long and sturdy but not massive, its hooves distinctive and pointed, and its snout and upper lip drawn out into a conspicuous proboscis or trunk.

Juvenile Malayan tapir, clearly possessing the tigelboat's most notable characteristics (public domain)

It is true, of course, that whereas its three New World relatives are maned, the Malayan tapir normally lacks any notable extent of hair upon its neck (though juveniles are somewhat hairier than adult); equally, it is not bearded. However, during its existence upon the island of Borneo for 10,000 years since the end of the Pleistocene, totally separated from all other populations of T. indicus elsewhere in Asia, it is probable that a Bornean contingent of Malayan tapirs would evolve one or two morphological idiosyncrasies (just as isolated populations of many other widely distributed animal species have done). Nothing very spectacular, but enough to permit differentiation from all other T. indicus specimens; such features could readily include a mane or a beard or both.

Certainly, in view of the otherwise impressive correspondence between the tigelboat and a juvenile tapir, the mere presence of a mane and beard is much too insignificant morphologically to challenge the identification of the former beast as the latter one.

The capture in Borneo of what was assuredly a young Malayan tapir should have attracted attention from zoologists, especially as the animal was maintained alive for a time at a prison in Tengarong. Tragically, however, it received no attention at all, and eventually it 'disappeared' - the fate of so many mystery beasts. No further news has emerged regarding this monumentally missed opportunity, and the whereabouts of the tigelboat's remains are unknown - so there is no skeleton or skull available for identification, let alone the living animal itself. Not even a photograph of it has turned up, and so the Bornean tapir is still a non-existent member of this island's fauna - at least as far as official records are concerned.

Malayan tapir (© Fritz Geller-Grimm/Wikipedia)

Even so, there is still hope that its existence will be confirmed one day. Borneo is a huge island, with extensive, little-penetrated rainforests and swamplands - ideal territory for secretive tapirs. And for absolute proof that large beasts can remain undetected here, look no further than the Sumatran rhinoceros Dicerorhinus sumatrensis, deemed extinct in Sarawak from the early 1940s - until a herd was found in a remote Sarawak valley in 1984.

If rhinos can exist unknown to science in parts of Borneo, how much greater is the likelihood that the smaller, well-camouflaged Malayan tapir can elude discovery there too?

This ShukerNature blog post is excerpted and updated from my book In Search of Prehistoric Survivors.

BREVET'S BLACK MALAYAN TAPIR - AN ASIAN MYSTERY BEAST RESURRECTED

Rotterdam Zoo's adult all-black Malayan tapir

Largest of today's living tapir species, and the only one that is native to the Old World, the Malayan tapir Tapirus indicus is further distinguished by its striking 'saddle' of white, encompassing much of its torso and haunches.

A typical, white-saddled specimen of the Malayan tapir (Ltshears/Wikipedia)

In total contrast, its four New World relatives are all uniformly dark. Naturally, therefore, zoologists were nonplussed when one of the adult Malayan tapirs sent to Rotterdam Zoo in spring 1924 from Sumatra proved to be entirely black, with no saddle.

According to a subsequent paper concerning this singular animal by Dr K. Kuiper of Rotterdam Zoo (Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, July 1926), there were no previous records of all-black Malayan tapirs, and not even Captain K. Brevet (of the Royal Dutch-Indian Army), from whom the tapirs had been received, had ever heard tell of such creatures before. Notwithstanding this, the Rotterdam specimen, a male, confirmed that at least one could (and did) exist. Moreover, when, just a few months later, Brevet sent two juvenile Malayan tapirs to the zoo, one of these matured into a second all-black individual (except for a small grey stripe on the median line of its belly).

Rotterdam Zoo's second all-black Malayan tapir

Yet although they were evidently Malayan tapirs, what was their precise identity, taxonomically speaking? Both specimens had been captured within the Babat district in the low-lying plains of Palembang, a southern district on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where the familiar white-saddled form also exists - thereby eliminating any possibility that they constituted a morphologically-distinctive geographical subspecies. And as these two mystifying individuals were both from this same region, with no reports of any all-black tapirs elsewhere, Kuiper also deemed it unlikely that they were merely the product of a simple genetic mutation - i.e. a melanistic (all-black) morph that could appear anywhere and at any time within any population of white-saddled specimens (like black panthers within populations of spotted leopards).

Accordingly, Kuiper looked upon them as representatives of a newly-emerging variety, not replacing the white-saddled version in any specific area (and hence not a subspecies), but nonetheless possessing a specific geographical distribution. In July 1926, within his PZSL paper, he formally christened his newly-categorised variety Tapirus indicus var. brevetianus, in honour of its discoverer.

Another specimen of the normal, white-saddled version of Malayan tapir (Jeffery J. Nichols/Wikipedia)

I brought to a close a short, previous item documenting the above history of Brevet’s black Malayan tapir (within my book Mysteries of Planet Earth, 1999) by stating:

However, it now seems much more plausible that this all-black form was nothing more than a melanistic mutant after all, because no further brevetianus specimens have ever been documented. And both of the Rotterdam individuals died before any matings with white-backed specimens could take place - thereby denying science the opportunity of investigating the genetic basis of their uniformly dark colouration. Even so, their preserved remains at the Leiden Museum of Natural History bear silent witness to their erstwhile existence, and to the tantalising prospect that at some stage in the future, their kind will reappear, reviving the brevetianus zoogeographical paradox - the presence of all-black tapirs in the Old World. 

And indeed, after almost 80 years, that hypothetical stage in the future finally became the very real present, when in 2000-2001, as subsequently documented by J. Mohammed Azlan of WWF Malaysia (Tapir Conservation, vol. 11, no. 1, June 2002), two separate all-black Malayan tapir sightings were recorded within Jerangau Forest Reserve, in Ulu Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia. The first sighting took place on 9 July 2000 at 7.44 pm, when a motion-sensitive infra-red camera set up in lowland forest to monitor tigers obtained a clear photograph of a tapir that was wholly black, with no white saddle marking whatsoever. The second sighting, again the result of triggering an infra-red camera but this time set up in hill forest, snapped an all-black tapir at 1.13 am on 20 July 2001. 

One of  two photographs of a Brevet's black Malayan tapir snapped in the wild just over a decade ago (J. Mohammed Azlan)

On 20 and 30 May 2016, moreover, during the First National Tiger Survey Program 2016-2020 embarked upon by Malaysia's Department of Wildlife and National Park (DWNP),  an adult male melanistic tapir was photographed using a passive digital infrared camera trap in Tekai Tembeling Forest Reserve, located in the central Peninsular Malaysian state of Pahang.

The above-listed images are currently the only photos obtained in the wild of specimens of Brevet’s black Malayan tapir. (In fact, it might even be that both of the 2000-2001 photos are of the same single animal, which may simply have moved from low forest into hill forest during the intervening year between the snapping of the two photos.) Also, according to various online coverages for the Malayan tapir, in September 2003 Canadian researcher William Sommers witnessed the live birth of an all-black Malayan tapir in the wild. If correct, this is particularly intriguing, because tapirs of all species are normally born striped, only losing their markings as they mature (as was the case with the second all-black Malayan tapir at Rotterdam Zoo). 

A typical, striped juvenile specimen of Malayan tapir (Sasha Kopf/Wikipedia)

In any event, these 21st-Century photos snapepd in the wild provide conclusive evidence that Brevet’s all-but-forgotten melanistic mystery beast still exists - albeit most probably as an exceedingly rare mutant limited to a couple or so individuals in every generation. And its unexpected appearance in Malaysia, greatly expanding this form’s known distribution, substantiates my belief that it is indeed a mutant morph capable of appearing anywhere within the total Malayan tapir population. Benefiting from modern-day advances in DNA analyses, and with at least one contemporary specimen in existence, it would be fascinating to investigate the genetic make-up of Brevet’s black Malayan tapir, and finally establish after many decades of scientific obscurity the true identity of this enigmatic creature.

Incidentally, in the belief that such a creature would prove exceedingly popular as a pet in the USA, biological engineers have recently attempted to create a dwarf version of the Malayan tapir – but that, as they say, is another story...

Hand-coloured engraving of a normal Malayan tapir, c.1840