The trade in babirusas and wild pigs in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

We collected two long-term datasets documenting the trade in two endemic wild pig species in North Sulawesi, Indonesia-a 6-year survey of the end market and records of all transactions by a wild pig dealer during three periods over a 10-year period. Analysis of these data show that the number of babirusas (an endangered, endemic, protected species of wild pig) on sale in the end market is strongly influenced by law enforcement activities, although dealer habituation is reducing the effects of these interventions. We demonstrate that dealers drove significantly farther to buy wild pigs, paid more for them and bought fewer in 1997 than 1988. These trends are consistent with resource depletion, but we show that they are also likely to be caused by market changes. We suggest that long-term, spatially explicit studies are important for the assessment of the sustainability of the wildlife trade, as they provide the potential for disentangling the influences of market dynamics from population declines, and thereby assist in interpreting changes in prices and quantities on sale in end markets. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.