KUALA LUMPUR, July 24 — A Malayan tapir that was spotted in Singapore on Saturday had probably swam from Malaysia to the republic.

The Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres) co-CEO Kalai Vanan Balakrishnan hoped that the tapir would find its way back.

Failing which, it will be sent back to Malaysia if it is caught, The Straits Times quoted Kalai as saying.

According to Kalai, the Acres wildlife rescue team had received a call about the sighting. By the time their team arrived, the tapir "entered back into the sea and hopefully found a suitable habitat in its native range”.

The presence of the endangered species at the Punggol Park Connector was highlighted by Facebook user Richard Seah on the Singapore Wildlife Sightings group where he described the herbivorous mammal "the size of a large pig”.

Seah said he did not manage to take any pictures as the tapir was too quick while the video footage from his GoPro camera was blurry.

"It was very shy and ran off,” he said.

Another member of the group, MC Wai, was however luckier as he managed to catch a glimpse of the tapir before reporting it to the National Parks Board.

In his video, the tapir's rear end could be seen as it jogged along the road.

This was not the first time tapir was sighted in Singapore with the most recent citing in 2016 where it was seen at Changi.