Babyrousa togeanensis

Taxonomy (Name)

Picture

Distribution, Range

Babyrousa togeanensis is confined to the Togian Archipelago in Indonesia, between the northern and eastern Sulawesi peninsulas (Macdonald, 1993). Babirusa are found on the islands Batudaka, Togean, Talatakoh and Malenge (Akbar et al., 2007).

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Country

Brunei Darussalam
Cambodia
China
Indonesia	IUCN
Japan
Lao PDR
Malaysia
Myanmar
Mongolia
Philippines
Singapore
Republic of Korea
Thailand
Vietnam

Status

International Status

IUCN Red List Category

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Justification

Listed as Endangered because its extent of occurrence is less than 5,000 km2, its distribution is severely fragmented, and there is continuing decline in the extent and quality of its habitat; and because its population size is estimated to number fewer than 2,500 mature individuals, there is an observed continuing decline in the number of mature individuals, and no subpopulation contains more than 250 mature individuals.

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CITES

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National Status

Ecology Discription

Appearance

Habitat

Babirusa generally inhabit tropical rain forest on the banks of rivers and ponds abounding in water plants. On the Togean islands babirusa were also sighted in mixed gardens, regrowing scrub of former 'ladang', secondary forest, village edges, freshwater swamps, and beaches (Akbar et al., 2007).

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Population size

Selmier (1983) estimated that the total 1978 population on the Togian Islands was in the region of 500 to 1,000 individuals. Recent estimates by Ito (pers. comm., 2008) place the upper limit of population size at about 500. Recent estimation from questionnaires showed local residents did not provide agreement on population size (ranges from <100 to >1,000), but the interview surveys did suggest that at least between 1995 and 2000 there had not been a sharp population decline (Akbar et al., 2007).

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Behavior

On the Togian islands troops of up to eleven individuals have been observed (Ito et al, 2005). During interview surveys on the Togian islands, 37% of respondents considered babirusa to be solitary, 29.6% reported them to occur in groups composed of one adult pair with a litter and 29.5% of respondents reported a group size of more than 5 typically composed of an adult males with multiple females and their litters (Akbar et al., 2007).

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Diet

In common with most of the other suids, babirusa are omnivorous and both wild and captive individuals consume a wide variety of leaf, root, fruit and animal matter (invertebrates and small vertebrates). Babyrusa on Sulawesi visit volcanic salt licks and drink the water and ingest the soil (Clayton, 1996; Leus et al., 2002), and so they might also do this on the Togian Islands. Although detailed studies of their diet in the wild still need to be carried out, a review of the available information from the wild combined with studies on the stomachs and digestive abilities of captive animals suggest that from an anatomical/digestive point of view, they are most likely non-ruminant forestomach fermenting frugivores/concentrate selectors (Leus et al., 2004). Their jaws and teeth are reported to be strong enough to crack very hard nuts with ease. However, babirusa do not exhibit the rooting behaviour typical of other suids because of the absence of a rostral bone in the nose. They will probe soft sand as well as wet, muddy places for food.

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Reproduction

Threat

Major Threat(s)

Babirusa on the Togian islands are susceptible to habitat loss due to forest clearance and forest fires, to disturbance by humans, occasional hunting by the local people if perceived as a threat to crops and predation by dogs (Ito et al, 2005; Akbar et al., 2007, Ito pers. comm., 2008). Hunting for food only occurs in a few non-Muslim village communities. In 1998 two thirds of Malenge Island's forest was damaged by fire (due to annual climatic variation). No large animal carcasses were found and babirusa have been seen in several of these localities since, but the fire may have impacted food availability for the species (Ito et al., 2005, Akbar et al. 2006).

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Conservation and Measurement

International

The species has been included on Appendix I of CITES since 1982, although international trade in this species is not thought to be have been an important issue in recent times (Macdonald 1993).

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National

All species of babirusa were accorded full protection under Indonesian law in 1931 (Dammerman, 1950; Setyodirwiryo, 1959).

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Conservation law

Protected Area

The Togian Islands have been designated a Marine National Park since 2004 (Kepulauan Togean), incorporating 336,773 ha of sea and 25,832 ha of land (http://www.dephut.go.id/INFORMASI/TN%20INDO-ENGLISH/tn_index.htm ? accessed 5 June 2008).

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Other Coservation Projects

Citation

Akbar, S., Indrawan, M., Yasin, M. P., Burton, J. and Ivan, J. 2007. Status and conservation of Babyrousa babyrussa in the Togean Islands, based on direct observations and questionnaire surveys (intermittently, 1990-2001). Suiform Soundings 7: 1.

Blouch, R. A. 1990. Report from the field: Indonesia. Smithsonian Institution Conservation and Research Centre Newsletter 1: 6-8.

Clayton, L. M. 1996. Conservation Biology of the Babyrusa Babyrousa babyrussa in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Oxford.

Clayton, L. M., Milner-Gulland, E. J., Sinaga, D. W. and Mustari, A. H. 2000. Effects of a Proposed Ex Situ Conservation Program on In Situ Conservation of the Babirusa, an Endangered Suid. Conservation Biology 14(2): 382-385.

Dammerman, K. W. 1950. Geschiedenis van de natuurbescherming in Indonesie. Chronica Naturae 106: 216-228.

Deninger, K. 1910. Uber Babyrusa. Berichte der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Freiburg i. Br 18: 1-22.

Groves, C. P. 2001. Mammals in Sulawesi: Where did they come from and when, and what happened to them when they got there? In: I. Metcalfe, J. M. B. Smith, M. Morwood, and I. Davidson (eds), Faunal and floral migration and evolution in SE Asia-Australasia, pp. 333-342. A.A. Balkema Publishers, Lisse, The Netherlands.

Ito, M., Nakata, H., Jaga, I. M. and Balik, I. W. 2005. Status of Togian babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa togianensis) on Malenge Island, Central Sulawesi. In: N. Sugiri, A. H. Mustari, I. S. Suwelo and I. Djuwita (eds), Kumpulan makalah seminar sehari peduli Anoa dan Babirusa Indonesia, Bogor, pp. 71-77. Bogor, Indonesia.

Lee, R. J., Gorog, A. J., Dwiyahreni, A., Siwu, S., Riley, J., Alexander, H., Paoli, G. D. and Ramono, W. 2005. Wildlife trade and implications for law enforcement in Indonesia: a case study from North Sulawesi. Biological Conservation 123: 477-488.

Leus, K., Macdonald, A. A., Goodall, G. P., Veitch, D., Mitchell, S. and Bauwens, L. 2004. Light and scanning electron microscopy of the cardiac gland region of the stomach of the babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa - Suidae, Mammalia). Comptes Rendus Biologies 327: 735-743.

Leus, K., Morgan, C. A. and Dierenfeld, E. S. 2002. Nutrition of the babirusa. In: M. Fischer (ed.), Husbandry Guidelines for the Babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa) Species Survival Plan, pp. 12-25. St Louis Zoo, St Louis, Missouri, USA.

MacDonald, A. A. 1993. The Babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa). In: W. L. R. Oliver (ed.), Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Meijaard, E. and Groves, C. P. 2002. Proposal for taxonomic changes within the genus Babyrousa. IUCN/SSC Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos Specialist Group (PPHSG) Newsletter 2(1): 9-10.

Meijaard, E. and Groves, C. P. 2002. Upgrading three subspecies of Babirusa (Babyrousa sp.) to full species level. IUCN/SSC Pigs, Peccaries, and Hippos Specialist Group (PPHSG) Newsletter 2(2): 33-39.

Milner-Gulland, E. J. and Clayton, L. 2002. The trade in babirusas and wild pigs in North Sulawesi. Indonesia Ecological Economics 42: 165?183.

Patry, M., Leus, K. and Macdonald, A. A. 1995. Group structure and behaviour of babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa) in northern Sulawesi. Australian Journal of Zoology 43: 643-655.

Riley, J. 2002. Current Wildlife Conservation Society research and conservation of Sulawesi's suids. Asian Wild Pig News 2(2): 26-30.

Selmier, V. J. 1983. Bestandsgrosse und Verhalten des Hirschebers (Babyrousa babyrussa) auf den Togian Inseln. Bongo 7: 51-64.

Setyodirwiryo, K. 1959. Nature protection in Indonesia. Proceedings of the Ninth Pacific Science Congress of the Pacific Science Association 7: 18-20.

Smiet, F. 1982. Threats to the Spice Islands. Oryx 14: 323-328.

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