Unique 'babirusa' hard to find in the wild

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.