The 2011 Mountain tapir walkaround review by Kikimalou

At last at last, Kiki is awake and want to talk about the Mountain tapir (Tapirus pinchaque)  

Ladies, gentlemen... And crocs : The context  

The Mountain Tapir or Woolly Tapir (Tapirus pinchaque) is the smallest of the four species of tapir and is the only one to live outside of tropical rainforests in the wild.It is most easily distinguished from other tapirs by its thick woolly coat and white lips.
The species name comes from the term "La Pinchaque", an imaginary beast said to inhabit the same regions as the Mountain Tapir.
The eyes are initially blue, but change to a pale brown as the animal ages. Unlike all other species of tapir, the fur is long and woolly, especially on the underside and flanks, reaching 3.5 centimetres (1.4 in) or more in some individuals.
Adults are usually around 1.8 m in length and 0.75 to 1 m in height at the shoulder. They typically weigh between 150 and 225 kilograms and while the sexes are of similar size, females tend to be around 25 to 100 kilograms heavier than the males.
Like the other types of tapir, they have small stubby tails and long, flexible proboscises. They have four toes on each front foot and three toes on each back foot, each with large nails and supported by a padded sole. A patch of bare skin, pale pink or grey in colour, extends just above each toe.
Tapirs are herbivores, and eat a wide range of plants, including leaves, grasses, and bromeliads. In the wild, particularly common foods include lupins, Gynoxys, ferns, and umbrella plants. It also seeks out natural salt licks to satisfy its need for essential minerals.
Predators of mountain tapirs include cougars, spectacled bears, and, less commonly, jaguars.
Mountain tapirs are generally crepuscular, although they are more active during the day than other species of tapir. They sleep from roughly midnight to dawn, with an additional resting period during the hottest time of the day for a few hours after noon, and prefer to bed down in areas with heavy vegetation cover.
The Mountain Tapir is found in the cloud forests and páramo of the Eastern and Central Cordilleras mountains in Colombia, Ecuador, and the far north of Peru. The Mountain Tapir commonly lives at elevations between 2,000 and 4,300 metres.
The Mountain Tapir is the least specialised of the living species of tapir, and has changed the least since the origin of the genus in the early Miocene. Genetic studies have shown that the Mountain Tapirs diverged from its closest relative, the Brazilian Tapir, in the late Pliocene, around three million years ago. This would have been shortly after the formation of the Panamanian Isthmus, allowing the ancestors of the two living species to migrate southward from their respective points of origin in Central America. However, the modern species most likely originated in the Andes, some time after this early migration.
The Mountain Tapir is the most threatened of the four tapir species, classified as "Endangered" by the IUCN in 1996. Due to the fragmentation of its surviving range, populations may already have fallen below the level required to sustain genetic diversity, and the IUCN has predicted that there is a 20% chance that the species could be extinct as early as 2014.  
There may be only 2,500 individuals left in the wild today, making it all the more difficult for scientists to study them.

Oh Christophe he's absolutely gorgeous!!! I love him and the paintwork is lovely - the whole family is beautiful

thank you Harriet, for your kind words... And for the help .

I'm proud you love it

Thay are fantastic, Christophe

And so are the photoes as always

Congratulations Christophe a great job and beautiful collection.

By cons can you enlighten me about what has you customize?
I do not recognize ...


As far as I know France is the leading destination for Tapirs

Thank you Susanne and Jean-Luc I'm glad you like them

So What did I customize

Some electric cable

How marvellous

I am SO happy to see how your tapir evolved

You are very talented, and Harriet is a super friend, and people who listen to real good advice get much further than those who do not

Thankyou Christophe for your generosity in showing us your electrical tapir being borne

Fantastic topic Mr. Kiki!
Everything is perfect, the introduction, pictures, figure and the generousity while showing us the different stages of this figure.
I hope other members are not sleeping and they have the same luck as I have watching what's up in this forum.
Thank you friend Christophe!

That tapir is absolutely gorgeous! And it´s awesome to see the making process :)

Chris, wonderful work

I can't stop looking at him he's so lovely

Wow! That must be one of the best tapirs ever to be made!
I'm really impressed with the paintjob on this one, and the sculpture is formidably detailed!

Yeah- i am not the only tapir-lover!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very nice!!!!

Roger wrote:

Fantastic topic Mr. Kiki!
Everything is perfect, the introduction, pictures, figure and the generousity while showing us the different stages of this figure.
I hope other members are not sleeping and they have the same luck as I have watching what's up in this forum.
Thank you friend Christophe!

Too Christophe top storyboard What talent this monkey bright, wonderful
Congratulations,
:

What a wonderful mountain tapir!! Cutest specie of all tapirs, and one of my fav animals
Beautiful and extremely cute work Kiki! Great to see all 4 species together, wonderful walk around too
Congratulations for this work!

Kikimalou wrote:

All together now !

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...Good lesson Christophe! Soon I,ll see the brand on the market "KIKI ANIMALS"!

PS And what the brand of brown tapir on the right?

Sergey wrote:

And what the brand of brown tapir on the right?

The answer is here : https://sts-forum.forumieren.de/t2361-the-papo-2011-brazilian-tapir-walkaround-review-by-kikimalou

More fantastic work my friend!
Now you have all the species of tapir in your collection, beautifully done!
And all of your pics, and the progress in the modelling are always nice to see!
I think, you created a new species, the "electric tapir"....

Wow! this tapir is amazing! I can't believe I have no tapirs at all in my collection! Must buy one! (Schleich... )
congratulations Kiki!

Thank you everybody, I'm very happy you like it

It's my first baby in clay I still can't believe I made it myself

Very nice, thanks for all of the photos, especially the series on making him.

What a beautiful family Christophe! congrats!!!
I really like the making of :) What kind of clay do you used? and that change to green colour for the skin, is it another clay?
The figure is much better after Harriet tips :) did you make it again from the beggining or did you fix the original one?
now maybe the turn for the baby tapirs

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

I think, you created a new species, the "electric tapir"....

Thank you Phil, Willy and Joan

Abu Rai wrote:

What a beautiful family Christophe! congrats!!!
I really like the making of :) What kind of clay do you used? and that change to green colour for the skin, is it another clay?
The figure is much better after Harriet tips :) did you make it again from the beggining or did you fix the original one?
now maybe the turn for the baby tapirs

The white clay is WEPAM, an hairdryer porcelein, it is easy to work but not very fine on small detail, at least for me

The green thing is greenstuff from GamesWorkshop, it's a two component clay which dry in about 1 hour and a half. The last clay I used is MIlliput, another air drying one, on the back of the tapir.

It's the same tapir before and after the tips. Harriet told me the chest need to be bigger, the back was too high and the right foreleg was like a sausage .
So I made the changement on the back, the chest and the sausage.
She also thought the neck was too long but the problem disappeared when I changed the chest.
I thought the ears were too thin and too big so I changed them too.

After that, I made the eyes and the toes