Unique 'babirusa' hard to find in the wild

Bambang M, The Jakarta Post, Palu, Central Sulawesi

With its distinct white tusks growing right from its jaw, the babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa), or pig deer, looks a bit bizarre.

At first sight, the babirusa, which is about 85 to 100 cm in length and weighs up to 100 kg, looks no different from the Sulawesi forest pig (Sus celebensis). Though it also has upper tusks, the babirusa is gray and hairless, while a forest pig is black and hairy. Moreover, they eat different food. The babirusa only eats fruit, leaves and sometimes beetle larvae from dead wood. Unlike other pigs, the babirusa never eats deep lying roots using their snouts.

Sadly, the animal, which is unique to Sulawesi, is rarely spotted in its natural habitat anymore, and has been listed as "vulnerable" by the World Conservation Union (IUCN)'s Red Data Book.

According to experts, there are at least three subspecies of babirusa: the Babyrousa babyrussa celebensis which lives in Sulawesi; B.b. babyrussa on Sula and Buru islands; and B.b. togeanesis on Togean island. Two other known subspecies, the B.b. beruensis and B.b. bolabatuensis, have gone extinct.

Famed biologist Alfred Russel Wallacea, who divided Indonesian fauna into two categories -- western and eastern territories -- found thriving babirusa populations in what is now the Tangkoko- Duasudara Nature Reserve and Lembe island. Now this endemic animal has disappeared from these areas.

The unique animal is hardly found in national parks or nature reserves across Sulawesi Island, like the Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park, the Rawa Aopa National Park, the Fahrumpeae Nature Reserve and the Lore Lindu National Park.

Lore Lindu was an important area for the babirusa. Before the Red Knobbed Hornbill (Rhyticeros cassidix), the park used the babirusa as its symbol, because of the large babirusa population in the area. But now the animal is rarely encountered, even by the park's forest rangers who go into the forest almost every day.

"The last time I saw a babirusa was in 1989," Thamrin, a forest ranger at the Bobo checkpoint, said.

There is no exact number for the babirusa population in its natural habitat. But it is safe to say that this nocturnal animal is in danger.

A 2001 survey by a Palu-based non-governmental organization on the environment found that residents living around Lore Lindu National Park saw only 11 babirusa between 1987 and 1991. For the survey, the organization questioned 170 people from 18 villages around the park. About 65.29 percent of the respondents said the babirusa population had fallen over the past five years.

Poaching is one of the main factors for the diminishing number of babirusa in the wild.

Although the animal is protected by law, people still hunt it down for its meat. At times, one can find babirusa meat being sold in traditional markets.

"Its meat is more delicious than ordinary pig or forest pig meat. But since its rare to find the animal, I have not eaten babirusa meat for 20 years," said Paulus Tampinongo, a resident of Kulawi, Central Sulawesi.

Also, the skulls of the babirusa, with its tusks, are sought- after keepsakes, a tradition that can be traced back hundreds of years when kings in Sulawesi made presents of the skulls. Now a babirusa skull costs as much as Rp 500,000.

Quoting Quoy and Gaimard (1830), babirusa expert Alastair A. MacDonald said that kings in Sulawesi often kept and raised babirusa to present them as diplomatic gifts. In 1820, the first pair of babirusa arrived in Europe and were kept at the Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where a male piglet was produced in March 1821.

Another factor blamed for the disappearance of the animal is land clearing, which has destroyed the babirusa's natural habitat. The species lives in lowland forests, but continued forest exploitation has driven it into mountain forests.

A female babirusa begins to reproduce between the age of five months and 10 months. The gestation period has been listed as between 125 and 150 days. Generally, female babirusa give birth to one or two piglets at a time. Thought to be seasonal breeders in the wild, Kathleen A. Maclaughlin and Patrick R. Thomas from the New York Zoological Society wrote that in that zoo, young babirusa were born every month from June through November.

The younger animal is vulnerable to natural predators such as pythons and the Sulawesi civet. And at times, adult babirusa eat the newborn piglets.

In the wild, an adult male babirusa is solitary, while the females are usually accompanied by two or three young babirusa. Although the babirusa is an nocturnal animal, in the daytime they still look for food. Their most active time is around dawn and dusk.

People living near Lore Lindu say the babirusa is a quiet but dangerous animal who will attack when threatened.

"I have heard many stories about men who were attacked by babirusa in the wild," said S. Gulo, a primary school teacher in Biromaru village, Donggala, Central Sulawesi.

People living around Lore Lindu National Park have another story about the animal's tusks. According to them, the upper tusk is used by the male babirusa to hang from a low tree branch while waiting for a female.

Is that true? It might be. But according to research by John McKinnon, Victoria Selmier and Colin Groves of the Australian National University in The Sulawesi 'Special', Archaic, Strange, Endemic (Australian Natural History Vol. 21, No. 101985), the upper tusk is used as a weapon by male babirusa when they fight one another for the right to mate with a female.

Unique as it is, how long will the babirusa survive in the forests of Sulawesi? This is a difficult question to answer.

Like other forests in Indonesia, the forests in Sulawesi are in danger. Land clearing and illegal logging remain serious problems.

Children in the villages around the Lore Lindu National Park know the babirusa is an endemic animal that can only be found in the wild not far from their houses. It's just that most of them have never seen a babirusa.