A tapir born at Reid Park Zoo earlier this month died Wednesday afternoon.
The calf, named Franklin, was born Jan. 4 but was removed from his mother, Contessa, because she displayed aggression toward him and would not nurse him.
“Zookeepers provided him round-the-clock care as he struggled with regular feedings and was being treated for pneumonia,” Vivian VanPeenen, a zoo spokeswoman, said in a news release. “Over the last 24 hours he required oxygen support, and it became clear his condition was extremely serious.”
The tapir was the first newborn of 2014 for the zoo. He weighed more than 14 pounds at birth.
“Hand-rearing a baby at Reid Park Zoo is extremely rare,” Jim Schnormeier, the zoo’s curator, said in a press release announcing the birth.
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“It is always preferable to leave offspring with the mother, and generally she would do a much better job than we could at providing nutrition and encouraging natural behavior.”
The Baird’s tapir is an endangered species native to Mexico and Central America and resembles an anteater because of its snout.
Contessa was brought to Tucson from a New Jersey zoo in 2011 to breed with the zoo’s male tapir, Tupi, as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.
Kimberly Matas
