A cyclist out for his Sunday morning cycle in Punggol at about 6:30am was overtaken by an endangered Malayan tapir.
The cyclist, who goes by the name Pong Posadas on Facebook, posted footage of the encounter in the SG PCN Cyclist Facebook group.
It showed the animal running ahead of him, having overtaken the cyclist on the cycling track.
Sounded like horse running
The cyclist said the tapir was running towards the Lorong Halus Bridge.
"I heard something running behind me," he said.
"I thought I was hearing a horse coming from behind me. Then I just slowed down and let it pass and it overtook me."
In the footage, the tapir was galloping at a very fast pace.
He was surprised when he saw that it was a tapir, with its recognisable black and white body.
The cyclist said he kept his distance and quickly turned around when the tapir stopped.
The animal ran past another person in the opposite direction at one point.
Members of the public are advised not to approach or feed tapirs when they are spotted in public.
It is important to keep a safe distance from the wild animal and not to do anything that can provoke the animal such as using flash photography while taking photos.
A Malayan tapir was previously seen at a park connector in Punggol at around 1am on Friday, Jul. 22.
More about tapirs
Malayan tapirs are agile and fast swimmers.
There is no historical record of wild tapirs residing in Singapore so it is believed these tapirs were visitors from Johor.
They are such good swimmers making it highly possible for them to swim over to mainland Singapore directly from Malaysia. However, they could have also used nearby islands as pit stops.
Described to be living fossils, tapirs have been around since the Eocene but all four species are now either endangered or vulnerable species due to habitat destruction or poaching.
They do resemble elephants, hippos or pigs but their close relatives are actually horses and rhinos.
Tapirs do not reproduce quickly as they only have one baby at one time and each pregnancy takes about 13 to 14 months, Tapirs Specialist Group said.
The Malayan tapir is the only species of tapirs found in Asia and it's the largest of all four species of tapirs.
They are considered to be an endangered species under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
The Malayan tapir is also listed on CITES Appendix I, which means that international trade of any individuals of this species is generally prohibited.
The Malayan tapir is also an iconic animal of Malaysia even though it can be found in Indonesian island of Sumatra, southern Thailand and Myanmar.
Top images: Pong Posadas/Facebook