Sulawesi

Sulawesi Babyrousa, Babyrousa celebensis. Nantu Forest.

I’ve visited Sulawesi twice. I spent a week or so here in 2012 in search of Babyrusa at Nantu and Tarsier, Bear Cuscus and Celebes Crested Macaque in Tangkoko. I returned briefly in 2023 for 36 hours in Tangkoko with Carlos Bocos on my way back from West Papua.

Tangkoko Nature Reserve

Spectral Tarsier, Tarsius spectrum

Over two nights here in 2012 I saw Gursky’s Spectral Tarsiers, Black Crested Macaques and Bear Cuscus. I also found roosting Sulawesi Rousettes and a Whitish Dwarf Squirrel.

Celebes Crested Macaque, Macaca nigra

Thirty six hours here in 2023 added Small (Dwarf) Sulawesi Cuscus, Celebes Dwarf Squirrel, Hoffman’s Sulawesi and Northeastern Xanthurus Rats, Hellwald’s and Musschenbroek’s Sulawesi Maxomys, Long-tailed Taeromys, Peters’s and Forest Short-nosed Fruit Bats, Sulawesi Naked-backed Fruit Bat, Sulawesi Fruit Bat, Lesser False Vampire Bat, Sulawesi Horseshoe Bat, and Nepalese Whiskered Bat.

Manado Tua

Manado Tua

An awful hike up and down the mountain in 2012 in search of Dwarf Cuscuses produced no mammals.

Nantu

Sulawesi Babyrousa, Babyrousa celebensis

Three nights here in 2012 was enough time to see Heck’s Macaque, lots of Babirusas and a few Sulawesi Wild Pigs.

Babyrusa skull

Community Reports

Sulawesi & West Papua, 2023: Dave Geo, with species on Sulawesi including Moor Maqaques and Sulawesi Dwarf Cuscus.

A quick dash through Tangkoko, 2023: Jon Hall, 36 hours and 18 species including Long-tailed Taeromys, Dwarf Cuscus and Sulawesi Fruit Bats.

Sulawesi and West Papua, 2023: Ian Thompson’s report of two very quick dashes to Nantu and Makassar with 8 species including Babirusa, Heck’s Macaque and Sulawesi Warty Pig.

Bantimurung National Park, Sulawesi 2022: Carlos Bocos, 24 hours & 10 plus species including Sulawesi Striped Fruit Bat, a gorgeous Sulawesi Forest Rat and Makassar Tarsier.

Tangkoko, 2020: Hugh Lansdown, 4 days & 4 species including Bear Cuscus.

Remote Sulawesi, 2019: Carlos Bocos, 3 weeks & 34 species including Stripe-faced Fruit BatPallas’s Tube-nosed Fruit BatTarsiers and Talaud, Peleng and Sulawesi Cuscus.

Sulawesi and Kerinci-Seblat, Sumatra (with a bit of Bali and Java too), 2018: Tomer Ben-Yehuda, 2 weeks & 30+ species including Babirusa and Bear Cuscus.

Lembeh Island, 2018: Vladimir Dinets, 10 days & several species including Spectral Tarsiers and Yellow-tailed Rats.

Way Kambas (Sumatra) and Tangkoko (Sulawesi), 2018: Andreas Jonsson, 9 days & 32 species in Way Kambas, and another 5 in Tangkoko, including  Pen-tailed Tree Shrew, Trefoil Horseshoe Bat and Celebes Dwarf Squirrel.

Sulawesi, 2015: Curtis Hart, 3 weeks & 16 species including Babirusa, Moor, Heck’s and Crested Macaques and Bare-backed Fruit Bats.

Indonesia (Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Borneo and Bali), 2013: Dave Redfield and Richard White (INDRI tours), 22 days & 52 species including Pen-tail Treeshrew, Otter Civet and Mitred Langurs (all in Way Kambas, Sumatra).

Sulawesi, 2013: Torbjorn Lundqvist, 11 days & 10 species including Siau Island Tarsier and Dwarf Cuscus.

Tangkoko and Nantu, 2012: Jon Hall, 1 week & 8 species including Babirusa and Bear Cuscus.

Sulawesi 2012: Coke Smith, 9 days & 8 species including Babirusa and Bear Cuscus.

Sulawesi, Sumatra and a bit of Java, 2012: Dominique Brugiere, 7 weeks & plenty of mammals including Babirusa, Sulawesi Warty Pig, Anoa, Banteng and Javan Ferret Badger.

North Sulawesi and Gorantola, 2009: Jean Dille, 10 days & some nice mammals including Spectral Tarsier, Anoa, Bear Cuscus, Heck’s Macaques and Babirusa.

Indonesia (esp. Sulawesi), 2009: Steve Anyon-Smith, 1 month & 20 mammals including Sulawesi Tarsier and Bear Cuscus.

Sulawesi, 2009: Curtis Hart, 3 weeks and 11 mammals including Babirusa, Bear Cuscus, Togean and Heck’s Macaques and Spectral Tarsier.

Also See

RFI: where to see tarsiers in Makassar, October 2023

Checklist of the Mammals of Indonesia, March 2020

Sulawesi Dwarf Squirrels RFI, September 2018

RFI Siberut Island in the Southern Mentawai Islands, August 2018

Mountain Bear Cuscus, September 2015

Pygmy Tarsiers Re-discovered in Sulawesi, November 2008

 

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