Although Baird is credited with its 'discovery', this tapir was first documented by W. T. White, another American naturalist. W. M. Baird was an American naturalist who made an expedition to Mexico in 1843. The thick hide is covered with a short, bristly-haired, dark brown coat.
Young animals have a reddish-brown coat brightly marked with white streaks and spots.
At higher elevations, animals grow thicker coats as protection from the cold. The throat and cheeks are a light grayish-yellow, and there is usually a dark spot situated below and behind the eye. The edges of the rounded ears are white. The most noticable feature of the tapir is its prehensile nose, which looks and functions like a shortened version of an elephant's trunk. Baird's tapir is the largest and heaviest of the New World tapir species, with a barrel-shaped body and stocky legs.