Or mouth-to-snout, that is. I think I know who’s going to win Employee of the Year at the Denver Zoo. A tapir gave birth last month but could not get the baby out of the amniotic sac. A zookeeper stepped into pull the baby out of the sac and then … performed mouth-to-mouth on it to get it to cough up the fuids in its lungs! :eek: Saved its life. Story and photo here. Video here.
Why on earth didn’t they have a birthing kit with a snot sucker and an Ambu-bag on hand? The veterinarian was right there!
I’m no expert, and I’m not familiar with the equipment you mentioned, but it can be surprisingly hard to find appropriate equipment for exotic animals, even such a simple thing as a bottle for hand rearing is a nightmare to find in the right size for some animals, so I’d imagine serious veterinary equipment would be even harder.
Seems to me that tapir snouts would be a very awkward shape to fit respiratory masks on, so it’s no surprise to me that they didn’t have such a thing to hand, especially as they mentioned that this was the first time they’d had a baby tapir, as well as the first time they’d resuscitated a newborn animal.