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Babirusas are largely diurnal, with a tendency to be more active in the morning when they feed. They are swift runners, weaving paths through the forest, and are also good swimmers, being able to swim to off-shore islands. They enjoy wallowing in mud baths like other pigs though other behaviours differ; The babirusa rarely use their snouts for rooting out food like other pigs, and they sharpen their lower tusks on tree trunks rather than on upper canines as other pigs do (2). They have an excellent sense of hearing and smell, which is invaluable in a thick forest environment, and have an omnivorous diet, feeding mainly on fruits, fungi, leaves, insect larvae, nuts and small mammals (2). Adult males are primarily solitary, while females form small groups of one or two females and their young (3). They have a slow reproductive rate compared to many other members of the pig family, with females bearing one or two piglets per litter in a nest of branches and leaves (7). The young are weaned at six to eight months and reach sexual maturity after one to two years; individuals are known to live up to 24 years (2).



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Source: ARKive

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