A tapir is a wild animal that lives in the forests of tropical America and in Southeast Asia. It is about the size of a big pig, with a heavy round body, short thick legs, and a very short tail. The thing everyone notices first is the nose: the upper lip and nose grow together into a short soft trunk that hangs down over the mouth. The animal can move it around, and uses it to pull leaves and fruit into its mouth. Tapirs eat only plants, they like water and are good swimmers, and they mostly come out at night. Baby tapirs are brown with white stripes and spots, so people often say they look like a watermelon on legs. There are a few kinds. The one in Southeast Asia, the Malayan tapir, is black at the front and back with a big white band round the middle, like it is wearing a white blanket. The South American ones are all one dull colour. The word is almost always used for the real animal — it is a zoo word, a nature-programme word. Unlike 'pig' or 'snake', English has not made it into an insult or a saying, so if a student meets 'tapir' in a text, it is nearly always just the animal.

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