Tapir ‘checks in’ at Melaka hotel on New Year’s Day
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MELAKA – A Malayan tapir caused a stir when it turned up as an uninvited guest at a hotel in Melaka on the first day of the new year.
The herbivore was roaming around the Estadia Hotel in Bandar Hilir when it was spotted by a guest, said Datuk Chuck Kassim, the general manager of Hatten Hotels Worldwide which owns the hotel.
“It was truly a New Year’s surprise for all of us at the Hatten Group,” he said.
In a Facebook post, the Melaka Fire and Rescue Department said it received a call for help at about 9am. Eight officers were deployed and when they reached the hotel, they saw the tapir on the fifth floor of the building.
The tapir was then sedated by game rangers from the Wildlife and National Parks Department before it was handed over to the Animal Welfare Department.
The Malayan tapir, also called the Asian tapir, is a species native to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, Indonesia.
It has been classified as an endangered animal on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List since 2008, with a total population of fewer than 2,500 mature individuals.
The last sighting of a tapir in Singapore was on Pulau Ubin in 1986. But in 2016, a tapir was spotted in Changi. An expert said it could have swum over from southern Johor. THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
