Nick in the north of my country Bolivia and Paraguay the tapir is hunted rigth now ,i saw many heads of them.They usually hunt them with dogs in small ponds inside the jungle.Its forbidden but its hunted by local white and native people.Juan

I wonder, is this sporting activity, subsistence hunting or a combination of the two? Is one likely to find jaguar spoor wherever the tapir are located?

Tapirs are such strange critters. I wonder if they taste like hogs because of their diet? Yet, they are more closely related to animals like horses and rhinos due to their being in the odd-toed ungulates.

You think your feet are ugly? Check it out...


Four toes in front and three toes in the back.

their hunt is nowadays forbidden, but locals hunt them nonetheless... sport, subsistence, the taste of doing something forbidden and most likely all three mentioned are the argued causes... and yes, tapirs and jaguars shared (share?) the places were they are both supposed to be find

Here they are also known as "anta" - great beast

Oh, such lovely feet! Prime candidates for pickling, I'm sure. Care for some "anta-pasto" gentlemen? Musn't allow our appetites to tapir-off!

Seriously though, those plump quarters look like mighty good eating!?

Does anyone know of any place where Tapir Hunting is still legal?

Just a few picts borrowed from the web.

Baird's tapir, South America




Malayian tapir

I hunted many many years (sigh) ago in the remote jungle of Bolivia for the local game and my wife and I managed to bag three tapirs . They were cut up and distributed to all the local families for immediate consumption or smoking as there certainly was no refrigeration out there. An absolutely fascinating hunt with one being called out of the jungle by a young guy whistling and whistling. One of the most unusual trophies of my life time. (an aardvark is pretty weird too ...)

Hey, well done scruffy! I'd say you're a member of a rather exclusive club. What else have you hunted in South America? Have you any photos of your trip??

I'm interested to see or hear more about it also. What does tapir and aardvark taste like?

I'll have to find some old slides sometime and make prints. An interesting thing about a tapir is that it doesn't have much for handles if you have to drag it !!! Fat as hell. The guy actually took out his machete and cut through the roof of its mouth and put a rope through that and pulled it that way. You would think that tying the rope around its neck might have been as good .. Everyone in those days carried, it seemed, 16 gauge single shot shotguns manufactured in Brazil. I had taken a box of 16 gauge shells that I was given back about 15 years earlier and at 2 3/4 inches they were too long.... Everything that we shot in the jungle seemed fat .. the cattle that wandered around seemed very very thin .. nutrients 'cause of all the rain ??? I don't know. We ate everything but the folks there seemed to prefer .. what they called 'hochis' ... agoutis ??? rodent types . We whacked white lipped javelina .. broquet deer, huge ducks that sat in trees .. a few varmints that I had no idea what they were ??? Lots of strange stuff in the jungles ... I seem to know most of the game in North America and Southern Africa .. but like I said .. strange varmints there. The tapir that I ate so long ago .. I really can't remember what it was like. (The javelina was great as was an armadillo I shot) ..My one and only aardvark was eaten by the help .. (I have it in a full mount) but a great amigo in Namibia loves to eat them...

Great stuff there scruffy! If I can help out in posting those old pictures do let me know.

Were you working there?

No handles...that's funny. They look really dense. I bet nobody hucks one over their shoulder and runs down the road.

Yo !

I saw a advertisement in a magazine that listed a 2x1 jungle hunt in Bolivia for $1,298 each .. this was each for a seven day hunt and included airfare from Miami. The booking agent (a travel agent dude from Miami) told me to come at Christmas. Being a teacher I gave him three choices. Christmas, Easter, and summer. I sent him the deposit in September .. along with the info on guns. We showed up about December 30th .. on a Monday, I think. The guide had only heard that we were coming on Saturday .. a couple of days earlier. My guns were seized at the airport because there were no gun permits. (I got them back later in Canada) The guide said, ' Why do you come now !? It is the rainy season ?' Grrrrrrrrrrrr !!! It sure as hell was. Everyday it rained about four or five hours .. Deluge type of rainfall. Everything was wet, mouldy, chickens had no feathers on head 'cause of parasites .. Hunting was horrible because of all this. Bolivian peso was 30,000 to an American dollar. Everything seemed to break. When we were on the big airplane flying back to Miami I ran into that same travel agent and told him that everything was a frickin' disaster. No problem, he said. It cost nothing to live in Bolivia. We could go back during the dry season in August. No charge. (Meaning the poor guide had to foot the bill I found out later - much later) I accepted on the spot and went back and told my girlfriend who was thrilled to get the hell out of that place that I had good news .. we were going back in August !!! She was choked !!! Yet still she married me and we returned in August. Gun permits were on hand .. lots of pop and beer on hand (I was really worried that we would get sick from the water in December (we never did).. and because it was dry - it was wonderful hunting. We even shot a few doves (on the ground - had to shoot at least ten at a time as they huddled under trees for warmth). Guide's orders as he had paid for the shells. The shells, of which we had only ten, cost $25 U.S. I did shoot one wild pigeon out of the air and whooped like a bloody idiot. Some Mennonite kids that were watching the gringo shoot the pigeon must have correctly assumed that I was nuts ... Fabulous experience (actually both times) The second trip the Bolivian peso had gone to 1,100,000 per U.S. dollar. I'll see what I can do about finding some photos. I actually write books about these hunting trips and this is all in my first one called the 'Last Jungle Cat.' On that first trip my wife told me that the guides were calling me the jungle cat !! Ha! Now that was some compliment and I was pretty well impressed that they were such good judges of men... and then I started to think ... back in those days in North America there was a television show called, 'Lobo' ... a show about some sheriff down south who had a deputy named Perkins. Beady little piggy eyes, not much hair, big gut .. always thought that the women loved him (they didn't !!!), and whenever he was about to go out on a case he would sort of crouch and state, ' Time for the jungle cat to spring into action !'

I said to Jose', ' Jose' ... back in Santa Cruz .. do you get a television show called, ' Lobo?'

Jose' replied, ' Si.'

Later he said to my pretty wife, ' Why did you tell him ?'

That's pretty funny...the jungle cat springs into action...si.

Ay Richard, you really make me laugh...

I am already preparing our next adventure for a real "jungle cat"....

Nobody deserve it more than you...

L