The Wonders of God’s Creation
The 200-pound babirusa, about three feet long plus a foot-long, rope-like tail, is a very ugly animal. It is brownish-gray in color with two pairs of curved tusks. The lower pair grows right out of its mouth and rises a foot or more before curling toward its forehead. The upper pair is rooted higher in the snout, but also makes a circle towards the top of its head. Their use seems to be to push brush away from their eyes.
It’s not likely you would want a fierce-looking animal like this for a pet. However, their looks are deceiving, for they are actually shy and passive. They live in the East Indian islands beside rivers and lakes where they feed on water plants, wild fruit, other vegetation, and insect larvae and where they like to wallow in the mud, just as pigs do everywhere.
They are a member of the pig family, much like those on American farms, except for the tusks. Their short-legged, large bodies give them a bear-like figure, which accounts for the nickname “pig bear.” Long, pointed snouts are topped with small ears and gruesome eyes.
Females make nests in carefully hidden places and usually give birth to just one or two smooth-skinned piglets each year. Natives often capture these, taming and raising them on their farms for their meat, which tastes as good as any pork or bacon. Little children usually take care of them.
A difference between these wild animals and pigs or hogs raised on most farms is that domestic hogs have only one stomach and so cannot eat grass and vegetation, but need corn, soybeans and other grains along with table scraps. But the wild pigs have an extra part to their stomachs, like sheep and goats, and whatever they eat goes into this “sac” where it is digested before it can nourish their bodies.
Because of this it is much cheaper to raise the wild pigs and feed them inexpensive vegetation — which the natives already do. American farms are considering doing the same, so perhaps you may someday see some for sale in your local butcher shop.
Strange as these animals are, they are just one more example of the Creator’s pleasure in placing a wide variety of creatures on the earth. But the supreme work of His creation was in making mankind, as expressed in Psalms 40:55Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. (Psalm 40:5): “Many, O Lord my God, are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done, and Thy thoughts which are to us-ward... if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” The principal “wonderful work” was in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing on the cross the sins of all who will admit their need to be saved and accept Him as their Saviour. All are invited to do this. Have you accepted this loving invitation?
ML-10/30/1988