Tapirus bairdii, the largest indigenous land mammal in the Neotropics, is one of the least-studied species of the rapidly declining family Tapiridae. This report presents the findings of a study of the distribution and habits of Baird's tapir on Barro Colorado Island, Panama, with primary emphasis on foraging behavior. A list of plant species eaten by tapirs is included. OF THE MODERN PERISSODACTYLS, tapirs have varied the least from early stock and may be classed as one of the oldest living mammals (Orcutt 1948). They were once very widespread, living in North America until the first appearance of humans (Simpson 1945, Radinsky 1963). Today the family Tapiridae consists of one genus, four subgenera, and four species, of which one is divided into two subspecies. All tapirs are endangered (Simon 1966) and are found only in parts of Middle and South America and Indochina. Distributions and distinguishing species characteristics have been documented (Hershkovitz 1954, Schaunberg 1969). Tapiras bairdii (Gill), the least studied of a poorly known group, ranges from southern Mexico to western Ecuador, north of Guayaquil. The distribution in Panama has been outlined by Handley (1966). I have explored the habits, distribution, and population of T. bairdii within the relatively protected habitat of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on Barro Colorado Island (BCI). The flora, fauna, and geology of BCI have been previously described (Standley 1927, Enders 1935, Woodring 1958). The island supports a tropical monsoon forest with a rainy seon from about May to November. The periods of this study, July and August, 1974, and March through July, 1975, covered parts of both dry and rainy seasons. Baird's tapirs were present on BCI when it was formed at the completion of the Panama Canal, but were hunted by poachers, probably to extinction. Tapirs were reintroduced to the island as early as 1929 (Robert K. Enders, pers. comm.). In the late 1950s, an unrecorded number of tapirs were again introduced to BCI and fed bread nightly from a large box in a dearing originally made for housing and scientific facilities. It was hoped that this food source would discourage the tapirs from traveling to distant parts of the island where they might be hunted by poachers (Martin Moynihan, pers. comm.). The tapirs, which I observed regularly, still include bread from the breadbox in their diet. At the time of my study, these tapirs were Alice, a mature female; her mate, Louis, a mature male; Max, Alice's mature male offspring (not seen since August, 1974); Eugenie, Alice's weaned, immature female offspring, born about December, 1973; and Alice's unweaned young, a male born about March, 1975. When these tapirs were feeding at the breadbox they were extraordinarily tame and could be handled and hand fed, but upon returning to the forest they resumed their wild behavior and became very shy. They refused bread in the forest and refused forest foods placed in the breadbox.