Babiroussa

Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 1: A to Beaufort, p. 628–629
A detailed black and white illustration of a Babirusa (Sus babirusa) standing in a field of grass. The animal has a large, dark, hairy body, a prominent snout, and two long, curved tusks extending from its mouth. It is shown in profile, facing left.
Fig. 1.—Babirusa (Sus babirusa).
A detailed black and white illustration of a single, curved canine tooth from a wild boar. The tooth is shown in profile, with its root at the bottom and its tip at the top, curving upwards and slightly inwards.
Fig. 2.—Tooth of Wild Boar, as the result of slight divergence, bringing about failure of apposition, and thus permitting overgrowth, is present in the male babirusa as a constant and exaggerated feature. The peculiarity is either transmitted by inheritance, or reappears in every male in response to the constant re-occurrence of the same conditions. In specimens kept in captivity, the variation has been known to become even more exaggerated. Mr Sutton discusses this interesting development in his General Pathology (1886), and notes a case from the Zoological Gardens in London where the upper canines of a babirusa, which was fond of
A detailed black and white illustration of a Babirusa skull in profile, facing left. The skull shows the eye socket, the large curved tusks protruding from the mouth, and the lower teeth. The snout is broad and flat.
Fig. 3.—Skull of Babirusa (from Sutton).

Babiroussa (Sus babiroussa), a species of hog, according to some a distinct genus, inhabiting marshy forests in Celebes and some of the smaller islands of the Eastern Archipelago. The canine teeth in the male are very large, the upper ones being curved towards the top of the head, and so like horns at first sight that the animal is often called the horned or deer hog. It is a nimbler animal than the common hog, and has much more slender legs. It swims well and frequently, is fond of eating maize, and is often killed for the sake of its flesh. It is of interest, however, mainly on account of the extraordinary development of the canines in the male. The teeth, like those of rodents (see TEETH), grow from persistent pulps, and thus admit of that extension which doubtless occurred at first as an abnormal variation, but has now become a constant character in the males. In the wild boar (fig. 2), wart-hog, &c., the upper canines, even in the female in some instances, tend similarly to curve upwards. This variation, rendered possible by the persistent pulp, and by a slight mobility of the teeth in their sockets, seems largely due to some slight displacement preventing the upper and lower canines from meeting and limiting one another as they ought normally to do. The frequent habit of rubbing the snout and teeth against hard objects would readily account for an initial displacement. What occurs to a slight extent and occasionally in certain hogs, rubbing its tusks, exhibited a very marked circular development, and would have penetrated the skull had they not been repeatedly cut (fig. 3). Though it is unreasonable to expect to find a use for every variation, it cannot be doubted that these exaggerated canines are of use to the males in fighting for the females, and are to some extent at least an outcome of the general characteristics of the sex. See SEX.

Source scan(s): p. 0655, p. 0656