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Babirusa — printable fact sheet
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Babirusa
Babyrousa celebensis
The babirusa is a Sulawesi pig with tusks that grow the wrong way. In males, the upper canines rotate in their sockets and grow upward, penetrating straight through the skin of the snout, then curve backward toward the forehead. They are not used against rivals in any obvious wa…
Did you know?
- Babirusas are one of the few wild pig species where the males' tusks can actually curve back and pierce their own heads if they are not broken or worn down naturally.
- Babirusa females typically produce only one or two piglets, extraordinarily few for a pig, which makes the species slow to recover from hunting. They are strong swimmers and have been recorded crossing between islands. The oldest known figurative cave art yet found — a hunting scene on Sulawesi dated to at least 44,000 years ago — appears to depict babirusa being hunted, meaning humans have been drawing this animal since the Pleistocene.
What I learned
Draw the babirusa
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