Your morning adorable: Baby South American tapir explores at Switzerland’s Zurich Zoo

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This month, Switzerland’s Zurich Zoo welcomed this endearingly odd-looking little fellow, a South American tapir who’s so young that he hasn’t even been given a name yet. He’s small now, but as an adult he could grow to measure 6 feet in length and weigh more than 500 pounds!

South American tapirs, also known as lowland tapirs, are easily distinguishable from the three other tapir species (the Baird’s tapir, mountain tapir and Malayan tapir) by the short, mohawk-like manes that run down their necks. Like their fellow tapirs, they have prehensile noses and, as one might imagine, an impressive sense of smell! Although tapirs rather resemble pigs, they’re actually more closely related to larger odd-toed ungulate mammals like horses and rhinoceroses.

See another photo of this strange but adorable baby and his mother after the jump!

-- Lindsay Barnett