Their vision is poor, but their hearing and sense of smell are exceptional. They run off ponderously if startled but can also sneak away without noise. People have encountered tapirs feeding during night and day. In the deciduous forests of Santa Rosa National Park they seem to concentrate near water holes during the dry season. Whether this is for drinking water or defecation is unclear, since they seem to want badly to defecate in water.
Tapir feces look like horse dung but contain much larger chips of woody twigs.
Juveniles show to accompany mothers for as much as a year after birth, until they reach what appears to be almost two-thirds of mother s weight. Mothers are reputed to attack humans that threaten their young. Tapirs make conspicuous trails in the forest, but they also pass through areas with no trails. They are usually seem one or two at a time, with no tendency to form herds. The corraled tapir at Finca La Pacifica had the same ticks and fungal diseases as do horses, and it died of a respiratory disease.