INT’L TEAM DISCOVERS … "GARDEN OF EDEN"

[Anonymous]

New species found in Papua ‘Eden’
An
international team of scientists says it has found a “lost world” in
the Indonesian jungle that is home to dozens of new animal and plant
species.”It’s as close to the Garden of Eden as you’re going to find on
Earth,” said Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the group.
The team
recorded new butterflies, frogs, and a series of remarkable plants that
included five new palms and a giant rhododendron flower.
The survey also found a honeyeater bird that was previously unknown to science.
It’s beautiful, untouched, unpopulated forest; there’s no evidence of human impact or presence
    Dr Bruce Beehler, Conservation International
The
research group – from the US, Indonesia and Australia – trekked through
an area in the mist-shrouded Foja Mountains, located just north of the
vast Mamberamo Basin of north-western (Indonesian) New Guinea.
The
researchers spent nearly a month in the locality, detailing the
wildlife and plantlife from the lower hills to near the summit of the
Foja range, which reaches more than 2,000m in elevation.
“It’s
beautiful, untouched, unpopulated forest; there’s no evidence of human
impact or presence up in these mountains,” Dr Beehler told the BBC News
website.
“We were dropped in by helicopter. There’s not a trail anywhere; it was really hard to get around.”
He
said that even two local indigenous groups, the Kwerba and Papasena
people, customary landowners of the forest who accompanied the
scientists, were astonished at the area’s isolation.
“The men from
the local villages came with us and they made it clear that no one they
knew had been anywhere near this area – not even their ancestors,” Mr
Beehler said.
Unafraid of humans
One of the team’s most
remarkable discoveries was a honeyeater bird with a bright orange patch
on its face – the first new bird species to be sighted on the island of
New Guinea in more than 60 years.
The researchers also solved a
major ornithological mystery – the location of the homeland of
Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise.
First described in the late
19th century through specimens collected by indigenous hunters from an
unknown location on New Guinea, the species had been the focus of
several subsequent expeditions that failed to find it.
On only the
second day of the team’s expedition, the amazed scientists watched as a
male Berlepsch’s bird of paradise performed a mating dance for an
attending female in the field camp.
It was the first time a live
male of the species had been observed by Western scientists, and proved
that the Foja Mountains was the species’ true home.
“This bird had
been filed away and forgotten; it had been lost. To rediscover it was,
for me, in some ways, more exciting than finding the honeyeater. I
spent 20 years working on birds of paradise; they’re pretty darn sexy
beasts,” Dr Beehler enthused.
The team also recorded a golden-mantled tree kangaroo, which was previously thought to have been hunted to near-extinction.
Mr Beehler said some of the creatures the team came into contact with were remarkably unafraid of humans.
Two
long-beaked echidnas, primitive egg-laying mammals, even allowed
scientists to pick them up and bring them back to their camp to be
studied, he added.
The December 2005 expedition was organised by the
US-based organisation Conservation International, together with the
Indonesian Institute of Sciences.”
The team says it did not have
nearly enough time during its expedition to survey the area completely
and intends to return later in the year.
The locality lies within a protected zone and Dr Beehler believes its future is secure in the short term.
“The
key investment is the local communities. Their knowledge, appreciation
and oral traditions are so important. They are the forest stewards who
will look after these assets,” Dr Beehler told the BBC.

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February 7, 2006 at 10:19 AM