SEATTLE — The Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma this week welcomed a white striped and speckled Malayan tapir calf.

It’s the second time a tapir, rare and endangered, has been born at the zoo since it opened 120 years ago, zoo officials said.

The 20-pound healthy newborn, which looks like a fuzzy “walking watermelon” because of its unique blackish-brown color with white stripes and spots, is nursing and bonding with its mother, Yuna, the zoo said online Tuesday.

Yuna is 10 years old and weighs nearly 900 pounds, zoo officials said. The creature’s father is Baku, a 10-year-old who weighs 800 pounds.

The pair had a baby boy at the zoo in 2019.

Zoo officials said they will name the baby and announce its sex in the “coming weeks.”

But in the meantime, the calf will continue to nurse for the next six months and stay with its mom for 12 to 18 months, zoo officials said. Officials said visitors should be able to see the calf in the spring.

Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo had its last Malayan tapir relocated to Fresno Chaffee Zoo in Fresno, California, last year.

The Malayan tapir is the largest of the four tapir species, according to the Tapir Specialist Group.

This species is found in Asia in southern Myanmar and southern Thailand.

Tapirs are herbivores and have long and flexible noses for snagging leaves and fruit, the zoo said.

The “mostly nocturnal” animal typically lives alone but may live in a pair.

Zoo officials said the tapir is endangered due to disappearing forests, farms, logging and being hunted by humans.

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(The Seattle Times staff contributed to this report.)

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