Ten Years of World Tapir Day

It's hard to believe that World Tapir Day is about to be celebrated for the eleventh time.  What started out as a random thought and a post to a tapir group on Google Groups (now sadly long-since deleted) in late January 2008, WTD has become an event that is celebrated around the world every year, and has hopefully contributed to the increased awareness of tapirs and the threats that they face.

WTD was always meant to develop a life of its own.  It was never meant to be a centrally-controlled event, but rather develop organically as more people and organisations became aware of its existence and adopted it as their own.  There have been many highlights over the years, about which we had no forewarning.  Discovering the countries in which events have taken place (25 at the last count), and the media coverage that WTD has received is a real source of enjoyment each year.

The most important aspect to WTD has been spreading the word about tapirs.  Maybe tapirs would have received more coverage anyway, but I'd like to think that WTD has helped to increase their profile at least a little, and provided a focus for others' activities.

It's hard to come up with a short of highlights, but here are a few from the first ten years of WTD:

• Creation of national tapir days in Belize, Ecuador, and Argentina
• Zoo Negara's large campaign in 2009
• First Dog on the Moon's comic for WTD in 2010
• Being part of the "Don't Palm Us Off" campaign to lobby for the correct labeling of palm oil as an ingredient
• Reaching 3rd place in the trending topics in the UK on the day on Twitter in 2015
• Coverage in large national media outlets such as the Telegraph (UK), New StraitTimes (Singapore), Globo (Brazil), Wired (US), and the Nine Network (Australia)
• Being interviewed on Australian and Swedish radio, Yahoo! News, and others.

WTD has also raised funds for the World Land Trust and Rainforest Trust, and provided inspiration for others to also raise funds for both organisations, as well as other organisations.

Looking back, I feel it's fair to say that the initial concept of WTD has been met, and it continues to grow and receive more coverage.  Here's to the next ten years of World Tapir Day and spreading the word about how wonderful tapirs are.