DENVER — Regardless of whether they look more like baby elephants than their actual closest relative, the rhino, tapirs are just really cute.
Denver Zoo announced this week that it received a new Tapir, named JonHi, after sending away their previous resident, Benny.
Benny is on his way to the El Paso Zoo, after a recommendation from the Tapir Species Survival Plan (Tapirs are endangered).
Regardless, both Benny and JonHi are Malayan Tapirs (from Southeast Asia), as is their current female tapir, Rinny. In fact, as is consistent with the species, Rinny is much bigger than JonHi — coming in at 850 pounds. Meanwhile, JonHi is only (ha, only) 670 pounds.
"The females can push the males around a little bit if they want to," said lead zookeeper Mike Kainuma. "Fortunately, our females are very gentle - Rinny is a very gentle female."
In the story above, you can see more pictures of these adorable mammals. JonHi is not out to meet visitors just yet, so please enjoy!