This rare Malayan tapir in Tacoma is raising a social media star

Ume, a rare Malayan tapir, just turned 1 month old at Tacoma’s Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. With her giant eyes and bright spots, Ume has blown up online as a social media star.

Hopefully you've seen the videos online by now: Ume, the spot-covered tapir, making small squeaks or eating some lettuce. The 30-pound Ume kind of looks like a small anteater, with big eyes, and spots and stripes all over.

Those very adorable videos have made Ume Instagram-famous. Tapirs are rare with fewer than 50 in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Videos posted by zookeepers of Ume get shared hundreds of thousands of times.

"I think it's a little surreal if I'm being honest,” curator Erin Pritchard said. “It's fun to actually see how happy people are when they watch these videos."

Ume is only the second tapir to be born at the zoo in its 100-year history.

Pritchard said for being so young, Ume has a bold personality. She's playful and likes to explore.

"She will approach things quickly and if she realizes that maybe she feels a little uncomfortable, she'll quickly run back to mother and be like, ‘I think I made a mistake,’” Pritchard said.

Also in those videos, usually sleeping or quietly eating, is Ume’s 10-year-old mother, Yuna. Pritchard said at first it was difficult to get Yuna to mate with Ume’s father, Baku. For about two and a half years, Yuna and Baku struggled to get together when they wanted to breed.

“We were doing a lot of interpretation and observations of their behaviors and then trying to put them together when we thought that their breeding signs looked appropriate,” Pritchard said.

Then they tried a new approach: putting the two tapirs together for long periods of time.

“Once we turned it over to them and let them live together, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they worked out their own relationship, they listened to each other's signals, and they had amazing successful breeding, resulting in this beautiful baby tapir,” she said.

Yuna had a healthy pregnancy and didn’t need any help from zoo staff when she gave birth to Ume around 7 p.m. on Feb. 2.

"She's the type of mom that has a beautiful pregnancy and feels her best when she's pregnant,” Pritchard said. “We're all jealous of her."

Since then, Yuna has been a perfect parent to the adventurous social media star.

"She shows her what to do but she gives her space,” Pritchard said. “She'll let her sleep a little bit farther away from her some nights, but she will get up and go check on her."

Point Defiance expects to share Ume with the public this spring. Until then, find her on Instagram.