“Snorgle” is my middle name

WHAT?

Adorable, mysterious…alien. I lovei t.

That nose is frickin HUGE! Haha… sweet x cute.

ohnomygosh.

that is WAY too funny and cute.

I have long thought baby tapirs to be one of the cutest animals in existence. but that top pic takes the cake.

This little dude is an attack of textures.

WHOA! – I’m still trying to get over the shock of this picture. It’s an ant-eater? It’s a zebra? It’s got mouse-ears! But gaawsh he’s cute! I am compelled to snorgle. *ouch* as I hit the screen

Tapirs are so cute! Aww!

Tisha: If your nose is bigger than the rest of your head, then you’re the reincarnation of Jimmy Durante. INK-a dink-a doo!

(Why yes, I *am* old. Why do you ask?)

Oh, the shapes, the *shapes*!!! Maybe he’s snorgling back at us…

Aubrey, do you post on dailykitten.com? There’s an Aubrey I saw on there.

So trendeh, with its color-coordinated mix of spots and stripes!

NTMTOM, great minds think alike… “Haaa chachaaaaaa”

Thinker, I think not.

#1 bebe’s face: no spots.
#2 babe’s face: spots.

Jaypo:

I love me my kittens, and yes I visit http://www.dailykitten.com …er…daily (at least!)

EEEEEEEE!!!! Check out that nose. Love the snorgles!

I’ll bet these little fellas could hold their own in a snorgling contest.

Not only to they look snorgle-able, they also look like they can do a little snorgling of their own.

And the cute, cartoon eyes on the first dude are just too sweet!

LOL Marley!

Great description.

Trumpy!!

You can do magic things!

Ahh, love MST3K. Love this little guy. So speckly.

Marley, lmao!! Perfect descripshon.

hehehe Groucho Marx – he’ll need a moustache, though!

Cain — niiiiice.
Acronym Man, away!!!

In case anyone doesn’t know what an okapi is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi

signed,

The woman who loves strange patchwork animals, apparently

those eyes so cartoon human…i love them. Snorgles the baby.

those eyes so cartoon human…i love them. Snorgles the baby.

those eyes so cartoon human…i love them. Snorgles the baby.

I clicked on the wikipedia link and then it wouldn’t let me click back to CO.

I *hate* websites that do that!!!

A few cute okapis here wouldn’t hurt, tho…

Mommy looks at that and goes all, “Ooohhh, I’m melting!”
I don’t get it.

ka9q’swife,

I was going to comment on the eyes but you beat me to it.
They almost have warmth about them.
What a lovely creature. *smiles*

And what is scriptoroverload and how did I end up there???
(sort of like an alien abduction, only without the weird surgeries)

The Flintstone’s car vac!

The first one is a Brazilian Tapir, and the second one is a Malayan Tapir.

If you think that these are cute, the fully grown equivalents are as well – the Malayan Tapir weighs over 300kg, makes noises that sound like a small bird, and fall over when tickled.

Is there a cuter animal anywhere?

Um, can I get a Tapir Baroo?!

“…makes noises that sound like a small bird, and fall over when tickled.”

They literally “fall over when tickled”? I think they’ve just won the QUTENESS™ sweepstakes.

Color me completely and utterly charmed, in thrall to tiny tapirs…

Tapirs also have 3-toed feet… I never thought I’d use this word, but have to say that they are absolutely *anerable.*

that other toothy one looks like napoleon dynamite of the tapir world…

Ok, I’m totally intrigued by how anybody discovered tapirs fall over when tickled. Presumably they don’t tickle each other (?) so what happened — did some bored scientist observe them in their natural habitat and think to himself “Hey, you know what would liven this up? I’ll walk up to a 300kg critter and find out if it’s ticklish”?? Enquiring minds want to know!

k-
The mole rat?
“disgusting, yet cute.”
Actually, the one on the right has great whiskers.

Der Zweck!

wow…well i guess theres different typres of cuteness

“Tapirs also have 3-toed feet… I never thought I’d use this word, but have to say that they are absolutely *anerable.”

They’re even better than that – they have four toes at the front and three at the back.

A friend of mine works at a zoo (oh, how I envy her!), and the tapirs are not only friendly and prone to falling over, they also remembers soft hands well. Two months after my last visit one of the females saw me and came RUNNING.

“Pet me! Love me!”

I did.

I love the tapir photos SO MUCH. They made my day. When I saw that top photo, I thought, “oooh, not pig, maybe horse?” and I realized after reading the comments that my knee-jerk reaction probably happened because of the eyes. That little guy has warm, beautiful, intelligent horse eyes.

Now I wanna go work at the zoo as a Tapir Keeper.

Thanks for the info on tickling tapirs, guys! Who gnu CO could be so educational.

BTW, wouldn’t The Ticklish Tapir be a fine name for a coffee shop? I’m picturing a cozy little place decorated with stuffed tapirs.

…not Tapirs on the couch watching football on Thanksgiving?

Thinker — hmmmmm….

ah. I inspired a Theo-shop.

Nice job!

I, too, dreamt of tapirs!

BTW, here’s a link to a comprehensive site on tapirs -

http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/

Tha national animal of Belize, no less! Who knew?

*gasp*

I saw an adult tapir for the first time in my life about a year ago, in a zoo..

It was GINORMOUS.

But the ickle tapir is soooooooo cute! :]

i love tapirs! their little pre-elephant noses really get me *right here*.

Tapirs are my favorite animals. TAPIR FACT! In Japanese lore, Tapirs are said to be evil and eat your dreams.

Mr Snuffalupagus’ baby!

No new picture yet today – I’m going to through cute withdrawal!
I know, I know, no whining, Meg has been giving us like four-a-day!

Oh, my favorite animals! Thank you for posting their pictures! As captainpotato pointed out, the first one is a Brazilian tapir, and the second two are Malayan tapirs.

At the Woodland Park Zoo here in Seattle, there are two adult Malayan tapirs. They were being kept in separate enclosures for a while so that when they mated, their baby would be born in the spring (better for its health). But the female, who is very submissive, really missed the male, and sometimes he would stick his snout over the fence and she would flop over on the ground – all 900 pounds of her.

(I’ve got lots of information about tapirs on my website, if anyone is interested, and the Tapirback site that E. Collison linked to is also a great resource.)

Actually, lots of cute things taste really good. Is cuteness nature’s way of flagging?

I think CO needs more weeeird animals… bring on the aardvarks, the okapis, the ocelots and armadillos! All of ‘em!

Almighty Raisin – yes indeedy!

Aww, thanks E. Collison!

OK, I have to tell my tapir story.

A few months ago I was in Belize and visited the Belize City Zoo, where they have several tapirs. About the time we walked up to their enclosure, an odd rodent wandered by (it wasn’t a zoo animal, it just lived “in the wild” at the zoo) – it was brown and looked sort of like a very large squirrel. I wondered aloud what it was, and my friend decided it was a baby tapir. Obviously not true, but funny, and we saw several more, at which point he’d say “Another baby tapir!!” At some point later in the visit I heard another person tell her friend “Look! That’s a baby tapir!” … and yes, it was one of the rodent things. By the end of our visit to the zoo, most of the group thought that these *rodents* were really baby tapirs. It was a riot!

Theo,,,that one you shopped looks like a not quite ripe avacado….

Tooooo cute!

I am a Docent (a volunteer) at the Jackson Zoo in Jackson, MS. We just had a baby male Malayan Tapir born last Saturday, on “Zoo Day,” with about 5,000 visitors present to witness his birth. He was a very special and most welcomed arrival to our Zoo family. Both he and his mother, Symphony, were utterly exhausted. It took him about an hour to stand up, and another hour to make his way down the side of his exhibit (around 50′ or so) from one corner to the next to lie in the grass. I got to hear his first few feeble whistles to his mother. (Tapirs whistle throught their prehensile nose). He was about the size of a small pig at birth, a dark charcoal color with white spots and “racing stripes.”

But sadly, I got news today that our new baby died on Tuesday due to kidney failure. It happens sometimes, more often than we like, to lose those precious babies. It’s not anybody’s fault. Not the mother’s, the Zookeepers’, or the baby’s fault. It’s just Nature’s way of saying that this baby wasn’t meant to survive in this world. We were here to love it for the few short hours that it was here, and show it all the love and joy and affection that we could, and give the mothers’ privacy that we could allow it with that precious little baby.

And then, we try and let the animals grieve and the Zookeepers grieve and the Zoo family and all of the rest of us who knew that baby try and go on with trying to preserve the species that we care for in this world.

I urge everyone to look up the SSP. The Species Survival Program, which governs all of the breeding for animals in Zoos, Wildlife facilities and other programs all over the world. It’s kind of like the “dating service” for endangered species animals, to control the bloodlines of each and every species so that related animal don’t interbreed. One person holds the “studbook” for each species, and it is a VERY GREAT HONOR to hold a studbook, and it’s also a great responsibility, because you ARE responsible for THAT SPECIES. When the SSP says that they need your particular animal to go somewhere (perhaps half-way across the world) for breeding, you don’t have a choice; you send your animal. And vice-versa. There’s a list. And animals are kept on birth-control pills, just like humans. They get implants! Or, are kept separated so that they don’t breed. If you have too many of one animal, or if they’re related, you might send one or more off, or trade animals with another facility. You just never know, and there are waiting lists for different animals, and it also depends on the facilities at your particular location, whether or not you have the proper holding exhibits for what that animal needs, such as available room, facilities, enrichment areas, water and/or pools, etc. It’s a Federal law that Primates (Apes – Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Orangutans, Bonobos and Gibbons; and Monkeys) have to be provided DAILY enrichment, which is a form of food, toy or treat that will stimulate their daily activity and enrich their environment. Other animals are also provided enrichment as well. That’s why you’ll see “Boomer Balls” (big PVC plastic toys), wooden spools, fabric, baby pools, feed bags, frozen treats, pumpkins, watermelons, papier mache’ toys, etc., scattered around the animals’ exhibits when you visit various Zoo’s. It may seem messy, but it’s just the animals playing with THEIR toys. And that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re having fun. And we’re trying hard to do OUR best to keep it that way.

So the next time you see a DOCENT (a Volunteer) at a Zoo, just go up and say, “HI!” We’re there to help y’all!

this site Stinks on ice exept for da pix wich are good you need more info on it