This is the adorable moment a South American tapir let his tongue hang out while he enjoyed being groomed in a Thai zoo.

The herbivorous mammal was seen leaving its mouth open while having its coat brushed by a caretaker at the Chiang Mai Night Safari in Thailand on August 6.

Safari staff take care of seven tapirs from Brazil and they bathe and brush the animals every day to keep them healthy.

Aside from being groomed, the tapirs can roam around a spacious enclosure with trees and ponds that resembled their natural habitat.

Zoo director Benjapol Nakprasert said: ‘The tapir is being cared for closely even if Chiang Mai Night Safari is temporarily closed. Visitors can still watch them getting rubbed on the Safari online channels.’

The mountain cow or a tapir is a herbivore mammal shaped like a pig but has a prehensile nose trunk. The tapir inhabits the jungles in South American regions with only one of the species inhabiting Southeast Asia.

Tapirs frequently live in drylands but also spends a lot of time in the water feeding on soft vegetation, fleeing from predators, and to cool off during warmer seasons.

Due to the Covid-19 surge in the country, parks and leisure facilities had to be closed to control the spread of infections. Thailand currently has 795,951 total cases and 6,588 deaths as of August 10.