Modeling habitat suitability of vulnerable Mollucan Babirusa Babyrousa babyrussa in small island of Buru, Indonesia

Babirusa is a mammal belongs to Suidae family. This mammal belongs to Babyrousa genus is known endemic to Indonesia. Recently there are 3 species of Babyrousa, one species is Babyrousa babyrussa, listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Babyrousa occurs in Indonesia on Sulawesi island, Togian, Sula islands, and Taliabu, Mangole and Buru islands in the Molucca regions. The Moluccan Babirusa is now restricted to upland forests and mountainous terrain. Then this study aims to assess the suitability of Buru island as habitat for Moluccan Babirusa. The suitability analysis was based on GIS analysis using 4 determinant environmental variables required by B. babyrussa species including NDVI, barren soil, elevation, and river network. The particular location was a Batabual landscape sizing 292.60 km2 located in the east parts of Buru island. Based on NDVI, less vegetation covers were observed in north and east parts of Batabual. In contrast, NDVI values were higher in the central, west, and south indicating that half of the landscape was covered by intact primary forest. Batabual has a hilly landscape surrounded by coastal areas with hilly areas were observed in the south and west. There were 2 river streams in the east parts. The analysis has divided the landscape into several parts based on the habitat suitability levels. About one third of the landscape located in north was considered less and not suitable for Babirusa. Some areas in west were also considered moderate to be inhabited by Babirusa considering a presence of hilly landscape that may limit the vertical distribution of Babirusa. Most suitable habitats were estimated in central parts of the landscape spanning to the south. South parts of the landscape were characterized by high NDVI values and forest covers then these areas were considered as suitable habitats for Babirusa. The size of this suitable habitat was estimated around 188.62 km2 or more than half of the size (64.46%) of Batabual landscape.