Hoofed mammals divide by the axis of the foot. Even-toed ungulates, which include pigs, cattle, deer and camels, bear weight between the third and fourth toes. Odd-toed ungulates bear it on the third toe alone. Tapirs sit in the second group, alongside rhinoceroses and horses, in an order once far more diverse and now reduced to those three families.
The Malayan tapir's colouring is the other surprise. An adult is black at both ends with a broad white or grey saddle from shoulder to rump. In moonlight and broken forest shade the pattern breaks the outline into pieces that do not read as an animal, a form of disruptive camouflage. Calves wear an entirely different pattern of pale stripes and spots on a dark ground, which fades over several months.
Both patterns are described as camouflage on reasonable grounds, but the function has been inferred from appearance rather than tested against real predators in the field.