It Is A Beast, Juliet Has A Son: Baby Baird's Tapir Born at Nashville Zoo

NASHVILLE, TN — A happy ending, finally, for Romeo and Juliet, and a happy beginning, too.

A pair of Baird's tapirs at the Nashville Zoo rewrote Shakespeare's tale of woe of star-crossed lovers, as Romeo and Juliet (the tapirs) are now the proud parents of a baby boy, born at the zoo August 28.

Romeo and Juliet were brought to Nashville from Central America (not Verona; no word on if Friar Laurence abetted their elopement) in 2008 to help introduce a new genetic line into the United States zoo population. Now, eight years, that new genetic line is flesh and blood and doing just fine.

So important was the birth that the zoo installed special camera systems in Juliet's pen that could be monitored around the clock via cell phone by keepers.

“These cameras can be accessed from cell phones at any time,” said Eric Reinsch, hoofstock supervisor. “Keepers were assigned camera checks during overnight hours so we would know as soon as labor started. There was round-the-clock monitoring to ensure a safe and smooth delivery.”

Juliet went into labor around 4 p.m. August 28 and the baby boy arrived just 20 minutes later. Mom and baby will be back out for their public September 14 in the tapir enclosure, famous among zoo-goers for its crowd-pleasing "Who Pooped In The Pool?" explanatory signage. Tapirs poop in the water to keep predators from using the smell to hunt them.

Photo credit Amiee Stubbs Photography