First observations on Moluccan Babirusa (Babyrousa babirussa). A translation from a recently rediscovered 1770 book that describes the Babirusa on Buru Island
Date
01/10/2016Author
Meijaard, Emily Mae
Meijaard, Erik
Leus, Kristin
Macdonald, Alastair A.
Metadata
Abstract
Surprisingly little is known about the Moluccan Babirusa Babyrousa babirussa despite the fact
that this animal was first described by Europeans in 1582 (Macdonald et al., 2016). Most of the
research on the biology of the animals of the genus Babyrousa has been conducted on animals
from, or descended from those on, the island of Sulawesi, where Babyrousa celebensis occurs
(Macdonald, 2017). A recently rediscovered book (Anonymous, 1770), published by Jan Monterre
in 1770 and republished in Afrikaans as Anonymous 2011, contains information about this poorly
known Babirusa; the chapter on the ‘BabiRoesa,
VarkensHert’
was compiled by an unknown
author, and as acknowledged, is largely derived from the book by Valentijn (1726). The latter has
been said to contain the observations collected by Georg Everhard Rumphius for his unpublished
books ‘concerning Land,
Airand
Sea animals of these islands’ (Beekman, 1999). The general
quality and accuracy of the observations in the manuscript indicate that the original author was
wellinformed,
and this gives a sense of reliability to this historical information. Importantly, this
246 year old book chapter provides us with a glimpse of a past when apparently the Moluccan
Babirusa was still very common.