Why is this animal unusual?
The male’s upper tusks don’t grow out of the mouth. They push up through the skin of the snout and keep curving backwards for life. In rare cases an old male’s tusk has grown right into its own skull.
Why does it look like that?
Nearly hairless grey skin, long legs for a pig and four curved tusks. Nobody is sure what the upper ones are for – they’re too brittle for fighting, so they may simply show females how fit a male is.
Strangest biological feature
Those self-piercing tusks.
Why is it strange?
When males fight, they don’t charge. They stand up on their back legs and “box” each other with their front feet.
Interesting behavioral facts
Unlike most pigs, a babirusa can’t dig with its snout in hard ground – it lacks the special bone for it. So it sticks to soft mud, and ploughs through it on its knees.
Records held
A painting of a babirusa in a cave on Sulawesi is at least 35,400 years old, making it one of the oldest pictures of an animal ever found. The name means “pig-deer”.
