[5] Mountain tapirs are black or very dark brown, with occasional pale hairs flecked in amongst the darker fur.

[11] Newborn mountain tapirs weigh about 5.4 to 6.2 kg (12 to 14 lb) and have a brown coat with yellowish-white spots and stripes.

[6] Mountain tapirs are also important seed dispersers in their environments, and have been identified as a keystone species of the high Andes.

[13] When around other members of their species, mountain tapirs communicate through high-pitched whistles, and the males occasionally fight over estrous females by trying to bite each other's rear legs.

[14] Despite their bulk, they travel easily through dense foliage, up the steep slopes of their hilly habitats, and in water, where they often wallow and swim.

They sleep from roughly midnight to dawn, with an additional resting period during the hottest time of the day for a few hours after noon, and prefer to bed down in areas with heavy vegetation cover.

[15] Males will frequently mark their territory with dung piles, urine, and rubbings on trees, and females will sometimes engage in these behaviors, as well.

It commonly lives at elevations between 2,000 and 4,300 metres (6,600 and 14,100 ft), and since at this altitude temperatures routinely fall below freezing, the animal's woolly coat is essential.

During the wet season, mountain tapirs tend to inhabit the forests of the Andes, while during the drier months, they move to the páramo, where fewer biting insects pester them.

The species needs continuous stretches of cloud forest and páramo, rather than isolated patches, to successfully breed and maintain a healthy population, and this obstacle is a major concern for conservationists trying to protect the endangered animal.

This would have been shortly after the formation of the Panamanian Isthmus, allowing the ancestors of the two living species to migrate southward from their respective points of origin in Central America as part of the Great American Interchange.

[6] Molecular dating methods based on three mitochondrial cytochrome genes found T. pinchaque to be within a paraphyletic T. terrestris complex.

[12] Historically, mountain tapirs have been hunted for their meat and hides, while the toes, proboscises, and intestines are used in local folk medicines and as aphrodisiacs.