Sulawesi, 2024
The trip report below covers my November, 2024 5-night solo expedition to northern Sulawesi, one of my most adventurous and enjoyable wildlife trips to-date. I nabbed 12 mammal species across three splendid wildlife reserves, including Gorontalo, Heck’s & Celebes Crested Macaques, Sulawesi Bear Cuscus, and Gursky’s Spectral Tarsier. I also bring some upsetting news from Nantu Forest Reserve, home of the legendary Babirusa—read on to find out more. Enjoy!
Sulawesi, 2024 Trip Report
Post author
10 Comments
-
-
Wildbennett
Hey Craig, thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! Regarding your offer for mammal tips in Australia, I am heading to Melbourne, Sydney, & Brisbane this December to explore the country before starting Uni in February. I would definitely appreciate any mammal advice you could give me! Also I appreciate your support of my mission to see as many wildlife species as possible before they’re gone….hopefully I can work to save some of them with my future career. Hope you can get to northern Sulawesi at some point to see the Babirusas—I really hope their population recovers naturally with time.
-
-
Murray T
Great report and thanks for posting. I’m really sad to read about your observations on Nantu. I visited Tangkoko last year. An excellent couple of days spotting. One other option for accommodation if you are combining with diving is to stay at the resorts on Banka Island and a boat can easily be arranged to drop you onto the beach of the reserve.
-
Wildbennett
Hey Murray, I appreciate your comment & Tangkoko accommodation advice! Next time I visit Sulawesi I’m planning on a diving/terrestrial wildlife trip with my family, and I like the idea of being based on Banka Island & exploring Tangkoko Nature Reserve from there. Thanks for the suggestion!
-
-
-
Wildbennett
Thank you for your comment, Tharabu. A primary reason why I love this site so much is the extremely useful, up-to-date information available to thousands of mammalwatchers around the world, and it’s great being able to give back my own up-to-date information to the community.
At the same time, I also felt the need to inform as many people as possible about the tragic, multifaceted situation with poaching/palm oil encroachment/illegal gold mining in Nantu Forest Reserve, a situation that may well culminate in the partial or complete destruction of one of Sulawesi’s last large tracts of pristine rainforest if nothing is done to stop it.
-
-
Martin Walsh VN
Just wanted to say, great job reporting the gold mining to authorities. It’s remarkable how many people don’t bother to report wildlife crimes/illegal habitat destruction. It’s probably a losing battle, but if enough people report things like this, perhaps authorities will occasionally take some action.
As per the comment above, if you ever head to Vietnam, feel free to give me a shout and I can provide some (hopefully useful) tips.
-
Wildbennett
Thank you for your comment, Martin! I totally agree with you—anyone who witnesses wildlife crime or illegal habitat destruction, regardless of their level of interest for nature, should immediately try to get the word out to as many people (and especially authority figures) as possible. I for one try to keep people (such as those on this website) who I believe care about humanity’s environmental sins, informed about those that I witness firsthand. It’s a small step toward what I hope to accomplish someday regarding wildlife conservation, but its still a step in the right direction. Anyway, thank you once again for commenting, and regarding your offer for Vietnam mammalwatching tips, I’m actually planning a trip over there this January to look for primates—I definitely wouldn’t mind some advice haha.
-
-
BenAltindo
Great report Bennett! Its an amazing area for wildlife. However with Nantu, the situation is a little more complex, the true reason for low numbers of Babirusa in the reserve as of now is due to the devastating spread of African Swine Flu through the archipelago.
Populations of most wild Suids throughout the region have been deeply affected including shocking declines of bearded pigs in Borneo. It has been reported in Northern Sulawesi/Gorontalo since about 2019.
The hide being destroyed by natural forces won’t help sightings as certainly won’t a gold mine and poaching but a dedicated group of NGOs and armed rangers are all that stand between the forest and total destruction of this natural wonder.
We must hope it’s continued hope for conservation can allow the babirusa/ sulawesi wild pig population to naturally recover.
-
Wildbennett
Thank you for your comment, Ben. I appreciate you sharing some useful information on the swine flu epidemic sweeping through Indonesia right now. At the same time, I would like to share why I still believe the illegal gold mine in Nantu is the leading cause for the disappearance of Babirusas & other megafauna around the salt lick.
First off, I’d like to acknowledge your main point— the havoc that the swine flu epidemic has wreaked on already-threatened endemic suids in Indonesia is nothing short of tragic. In fact, the Babirusas & warty pigs in the other Gorontalo reserve I visited, Bogani Nani Wartabone National Park, have been devastated by the disease in recent years.
That being said, in Nantu, the rangers & my guide informed me on multiple occasions that the illegal gold mine has been the leading cause of the recent disappearance of the Babirusas specifically around the salt lick. Swine flu would have invariably caused some damage to the pigs’ overall population in the reserve, and the Nantu park rangers could be unaware of its localized severity. However, that still wouldn’t explain the near-disappearance of Anoas along with Babirusas & warty pigs. Therefore, the Nantu rangers’ consensus about the recent disappearance of the reserve’s megafauna & the consensus I believe is most trustworthy (as the rangers are the front line for wildlife conservation in Nantu), is that the illegal gold mine’s recent emergence has severely disrupted ungulate foraging routes in Nantu.
They could be only partially correct though, and it would be disingenuous for me to draw solid conclusions about the situation in Nantu without utilizing any scientific evidence. In my opinion, there really ought to be a team of scientists conducting research in Nantu right now to assess exactly why the Babirusas are gone. Is it mostly because of swine flu? Mostly the illegal mine? Or is it perhaps a combination of both? Without actual evidence, no one can say for sure. Altogether, the reason I brought so much attention to the issue with illegal gold mining in my trip report was to make people aware about how critical the situation is in Nantu. The more people are aware, the more that can make a difference, or at least be informed. Thank you for reading through my report, and for your thoughtful comment. And as you said, we should all hope that the endemic suid populations on Sulawesi & greater Indonesia recover naturally.
-
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
craig9563
An excellent trip report, Bennett, and a big credit to you in your quest to see wildlife before it is all gone. I had your same passion at 18, but wasn’t until I was a lot older before I finally got moving around the world to see exotic mammals and other species. I’m really saddened to hear bout the gold mining and the disappearance of babirusa at Nantu. I had planned on visiting northern Sulewasi in the next few years and they were on my list. I hope maybe they can make a come-back. And I totally agree re. oil palm, I’ve seen what it has done n in Borneo. Keep travellnig to see animals while you can and while they are still there.
(If you come to Australia – to study ? – I can give you mammal tips).
Craig,
Melbourne, Australia.