Nice to see you, babirusa!

This is Buru Island, a small island in Indonesia:

The island of Buru in Indonesia. Image by Urmas/Wikimedia Commons.

Buru Island is home to many types of animals. One of these, the hairy babirusa, is known to locals, who sometimes spot it in the forest. However, officials have not been able to confirm the presence of the babirusa on Buru Island for 26 years! This means there have been no official sightings in this area since 1995.

To capture an official sighting of this elusive (difficult to see) wild pig, Indonesia’s environment ministry set up camera traps in the forest in Masbait Nature Reserve between April and June. Their efforts were rewarded. Camera traps snapped pics of some of the island’s babirusas. Now officials can confidently report that these cool animals still roam Buru Island.

Caught on camera! The Buru Island babirusa:

One of the Buru babirusa photographed by the Indonesian government’s camera traps between April and June. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry/Maluku Natural Resource Conservation Agency.

An image of a babirusa from one of the camera traps. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry/Maluku Natural Resource Conservation Agency.

The babirusa is a type of wild pig. Males of this species grow two sets of tusks: the upper tusks grow into a curved shape. Babirusa means “deer-pig” in Indonesian. Babirusas are endemic to Indonesia, which means they live nowhere else in the world.