The odious ungulate above hails from the island of Sulawesi, and is arguably the world's most heinous-looking swine. At first glance, you might not notice the off-putting way their corpulent torso is perched on top of those dainty little legs. Mostly because of that face (the one that looks like they just finished devouring an eight-point buck and had trouble swallowing the business end). You'd think the atrociously tuskified mugs on these pork monstrosities would make them great at goring one another (you know, for the right to mate with their equally atrocious ladyhogs.) But it turns out the things are actually loose in their sockets and quite brittle, making the one impressive thing about these animals merely an exercise in pointlessness. The locals pay tribute to these beasts by making "demonic masks" in their honor, none of which do much justice to the overall loathsomeness of the real thing.
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For some reason, I just had a strong desire to convert to Judaism.
But more than looks make the babirusa such a suitable candidate for Gestapo / Westboro Baptist reincarnations. What truly makes their life a suitably gruesome punishment for the wicked is the fact that, if not kept in check, those unruly tusks of theirs can sometimes grow upwards and inwards to the point where they pierce right through their own skulls and into their brains.
Via scienceblogs.com
Via scienceblogs.com
The conservationists pretty much gave up at this point.
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