One tooth (for geometrical reasons I assume a lower, but my memory is pretty hazy) had pierced the skull with (I think the caption said) fatal results. One of the skulls had lower tusks which were so much curved, that they grew into the mandible. Good point, I feel dumb for not realising this and have no clue how any of this works. Babirusa means “pig deer” in the language of Malay; their tusks resemble deer antlers. Thanks for such an interesting and fun-to-read set of posts, Darren.
One tooth (for geometrical reasons I assume a lower, but my memory is pretty hazy) had pierced the skull with (I think the caption said) fatal results. One of the skulls had lower tusks which were so much curved, that they grew into the mandible. Good point, I feel dumb for not realising this and have no clue how any of this works. Babirusa means “pig deer” in the language of Malay; their tusks resemble deer antlers. Thanks for such an interesting and fun-to-read set of posts, Darren.
One tooth (for geometrical reasons I assume a lower, but my memory is pretty hazy) had pierced the skull with (I think the caption said) fatal results. One of the skulls had lower tusks which were so much curved, that they grew into the mandible. Good point, I feel dumb for not realising this and have no clue how any of this works. Babirusa means “pig deer” in the language of Malay; their tusks resemble deer antlers. Thanks for such an interesting and fun-to-read set of posts, Darren.
One tooth (for geometrical reasons I assume a lower, but my memory is pretty hazy) had pierced the skull with (I think the caption said) fatal results. One of the skulls had lower tusks which were so much curved, that they grew into the mandible. Good point, I feel dumb for not realising this and have no clue how any of this works. Babirusa means “pig deer” in the language of Malay; their tusks resemble deer antlers. Thanks for such an interesting and fun-to-read set of posts, Darren.
One tooth (for geometrical reasons I assume a lower, but my memory is pretty hazy) had pierced the skull with (I think the caption said) fatal results. One of the skulls had lower tusks which were so much curved, that they grew into the mandible. Good point, I feel dumb for not realising this and have no clue how any of this works. Babirusa means “pig deer” in the language of Malay; their tusks resemble deer antlers. Thanks for such an interesting and fun-to-read set of posts, Darren.
One tooth (for geometrical reasons I assume a lower, but my memory is pretty hazy) had pierced the skull with (I think the caption said) fatal results. One of the skulls had lower tusks which were so much curved, that they grew into the mandible. Good point, I feel dumb for not realising this and have no clue how any of this works. Babirusa means “pig deer” in the language of Malay; their tusks resemble deer antlers. Thanks for such an interesting and fun-to-read set of posts, Darren.
Notes on the systematics of Babyrousa (Artiodactyla, Suidae). I cant imagine the stress that this animal should have had with this canine piercing throug his skull and beeing totally unable to do anything....not even try to brake the tusk agaisnt a hard surface cause it would only penetrate more and the payn must have been terrible!!! The second explanation seems more likely. As for the question of Gothenburg/Gothemburg, it's Gothenburg. When I wrote the text (2006), I recall hearing that Desert warthogs Phacochoerus aethiopicus were strict herbivores in which omnivory was unknown (sorry, cannot remember where I heard this).
Looking back at it now, that very first ver 2 post is rather odd. To see new stuff (from July 2011 to present), click here. In the first part of this series, I told you that allergies are the result of an immune response against an external, but normally not harmful substance.
Little is known about this shy, forest-dwelling pig’s habits in the wild. So... what's with the bizarre curving tusks? When you look out at a galaxy -- pretty much any galaxy -- you'll find these tiny clumps of light surrounding it.
I'd read long ago about the babirusa teeth growing back into the head, and I'm glad to see that confirmed. To see new stuff (from July 2011 to present), click here. Some friends and correspondents say that they've seen a skull (or a photo of a skull) where this has happened, yet no-one has been able to show me the goods. The end portion continued to grow but was now angled straight toward his skull, and keepers sometimes noticed bleeding at the breakage site. Another article on babirusas - yaay!
Presumably this originated from seeing the results of accidental injury. In my opinion, the two skulls are the same animal.
The babirusa lives in a predator-free environment but, unfortunately, humans are the main threat to this species. An early hypothesis was that the males use their tusks during fights over females. If indeed it's the same skull in both pictures, there could be an innocuous explanation for replacing the specimen's lower canines: they might have been stolen by visitors. Present only in males (females lack canines entirely), they grow continuously throughout life, and their growth, anatomy and function are all odd. Or perhaps the older mandible was dropped and shattered, or suffered some other accident. As the babirusa appears to eat the sand as it plows through, it’s believed the behavior has some sort of scent-marking function, although the exact purpose remains a mystery. In skull 1 they enclose a smallish trapezoidal depression, but in skull 2 the upper ridge is much more arched and does not converge with the lower one, so the space between them is much longer, tapering and open anteriorly. Wicked. Meru, our four-year-old male north Sulawesi babirusa, somehow cracked his upper left tusk earlier this year. Vague similarities with other long…, I know this post has been a long time coming. This would make sense with canine replacement or switching out the lower jaw. Oh, and top quality post, Darren. They eat all kinds of plant material, including fruits, leaves, flowers, berries, nuts, bark and tubers, and they not only browse and dig to obtain such items, they are also surprisingly good at standing bipedally (without support) to feed on leaves. (comment 6). Like many (but not all) pigs, babirusas are omnivorous, and are said to eat invertebrates whenever they find them. So many people say, however, that they recall seeing or hearing about at least one specimen that was gored to death by its own tusk that such a creature must have been recorded - however, I still have yet to see any picture of such an individual. Contributions are fully tax-deductible. ScienceBlogs is a registered trademark of Science 2.0, a science media nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Analyses of diets fed to babirusa (Babyrousa babyrussa) in captivity with respect to their nutritional requirements. In the wild, male babirusas tend to live in solitary or in bachelor herds of two to three males, while females can be found in groups of up to eight individuals with young. My new company has "spun out" of another.
One tooth (for geometrical reasons I assume a lower, but my memory is pretty hazy) had pierced the skull with (I think the caption said) fatal results. One of the skulls had lower tusks which were so much curved, that they grew into the mandible. Good point, I feel dumb for not realising this and have no clue how any of this works. Babirusa means “pig deer” in the language of Malay; their tusks resemble deer antlers. Thanks for such an interesting and fun-to-read set of posts, Darren.
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