Rangers hear loud noise in dark forest — then rare mammal appears, Thailand video shows
While camping in a forest of Thailand, wildlife rangers heard a loud noise. They investigated and found themselves face-to-face with a rare mammal. A video shows the surprising encounter.
A team of wildlife rangers spent the night at Si Phang Nga National Park on Feb. 2 as part of a routine patrol, Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation said in a Feb. 3 Facebook post.
Around 9 p.m. local time, the rangers heard something making noise near their campsite, officials said. They shined a flashlight toward the noise and saw a Malayan tapir foraging for food.
Video footage shared by Si Phang Nga National Park in a Feb. 2 Facebook post shows the tapir’s distinctive black and white coloring, rotund body and drooping trunk-like nose.
Malayan tapirs are solitary, largely nocturnal and exclusively plant-eating mammals reaching over 8 feet in length, according to wildlife officials. Although they have few natural predators, tapirs are threatened by human activities, such as deforestation and illegal hunting, and considered endangered.
Rangers were surprised to see the tapir, but it seemed unfazed by their presence and continued foraging nearby for a while, officials said.
Video footage shows it pulling the leaves off plants, looking at the camera and tromping through the foliage. The sound of snapping branches and its heavy footsteps can be heard over the nighttime insects.
Wildlife officials described the sighting as a positive sign for conservation efforts and an example of the value of routine patrols.
Si Phang Nga National Park is in southern Thailand and a roughly 450-mile drive southwest from Bangkok.
Google Translate was used to translate the Facebook posts from Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and Si Phang Nga National Park.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 8:07 AM with the headline "Rangers hear loud noise in dark forest — then rare mammal appears, Thailand video shows."
