George Weber, age 11, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for his question:
Where is the babirusa animal found?
The native home of an animal is called his habitat and as a rule he seldom strays from his habitat of his own free will. The babirusa has adjusted to the easy life in zoos around the world. But his native habitat is a tropical Pacific isle about halfway between Australia and Saigon.
Babirusa means hog deer, and this astonishing animal was named by the Malayan people. Travelers to his. remote Pacific island also named him the Celebes pig deer.' All this hog calling should give you a few clues about the appearance of the babirusa and his port of origin. He is a swine type animal with deer type legs. He is at home in Indonesia on Celebes,Butung anal several other smallish nearby islands in those midtropical seas. Mr. Babirusa is indeed astonishing to behold. You wonder. how in the world an animal could be so un beautiful. But he is rather a charming character and when you get to know him his appearance is soon forgotten.
The babirusa is related to the boars and wild pigs of the Old World. One of his cousins is the wart hog of Africa. And in a world wide animal beauty contest, the warty wart hog comes pretty near the tail end of the list. He does, however, have a few hairy bristles perhaps to prove that he is a mammal. The babirusa has a few stiff hairs, but you would have to search through and through his wrinkled slate gray skin to find them. He measures about 3 1/2 feet from his shovel shaped snout to his stringy tail.
Most pigs stand low to the ground on stubby legs. On his piggy trotters, the babirusa stands 2 1/2 feet tall and his sturdy legs are long and thick. He was named the pig deer because of his leggy look. But the most astonishing, thing about him is his tusks, We ex¬pect wild pigs to wear tusks poking from their snouts. The scrappy fellows use these long curved canine teeth to defend themselves. In quieter moments tpey also use them to dig up roots. But in the matter of tusks, the babirusa outdoes X11 tree wild pigs.
The two lower canines curve up and around his upper jaw. But the two canines growing from the upper jaw start upward and grow straight through his upper lips. Those two prongs that look like horns sprouting from his cheeks are really toothy tusks. The babirusa's tusks seem to be useless as weapons, but they do protect his face when he grubs for roots in the ground. And Mr. BGbirusa is a great grubber. He does all the grubbing for the family. His wives and children are tuskless and as he roots through the lush forest undergrowth, they follc a along to feed on the tidbits he provides for them.
The Celebes pig deer, like all the hogs, has a full set of assorted teeth, which means that he can eat both meat and vegetables. He is an omnivorous animal of the tropical under¬brush. He sleeps by day and after dark he escorts his family out to dine on roots and grc;:aery, eggs and small aninals. As a rule, he lives near a swamp or river. There the soil is soggy and easier to dig. All of the babirusa family are excellent swimmers.