“Lost World” of wildlife found in jungle

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="5">“Lost World” of biodiversity found in jungle</font></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="1" face="Arial">March 30</font><font face="Arial"><font size="1">, 2005<br> Courtesy <br> and World Science staff<br> </font><br> </font><font face="Arial" size="2"><b>An expedition to one of Asia’s most isolated jungles – in the mist-shrouded Foja Mountains of western New Guinea – discovered a virtual ‘‘Lost World” of new species, giant flowers, and rare wildlife that was unafraid of humans, researchers say.<br> <br> A team of explorers said they revealed dozens of new species including frogs, butterflies, plants, and an orange-faced honeyeater, the first new bird from the island of New Guinea in more than 60 years. <br> <br> The December 2005 trip by a team of U.S., Indonesian, and Australian scientists was led by the Washington, D.C.-based wildlife group Conservation International.<br> <br> The team captured the what they said were the first photos of exotic birds such as a male Berlepsch’s Six-Wired Bird of Paradise (Parotia berlepschi). It also found a large mammal – the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo (Dendrolagus pulcherrimus), formerly known from only a single mountain in neighboring Papua New Guinea. <br> <br> “It’s as close to the Garden of Eden as you’re going to find on Earth,” said Bruce Beehler of Conservation International, a co-leader of the expedition. “The first bird we saw at our camp was a new species. Large mammals that have been hunted to near extinction elsewhere were here in abundance. We were able to simply pick up two Long-Beaked Echidnas, a primitive egg-laying mammal that is little known.” <br> <br> The discoveries solved one major ornithological mystery – the location of the homeland of Berlepsch’s Six-Wired Bird of Paradise, he added. 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. <br> <br> On the second day of the recent month-long expedition, Beehler recounted, amazed scientists watched as a male Berlepsch’s bird of paradise performed a mating dance for an attending female in the field camp. This 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. <br> <br> The expedition took place almost 25 years after the discovery of the forest homeland of the Golden-fronted Bowerbird in the same mountain range stunned the scientific world in 1981, researchers said. <br> <br> This time, scientists said they captured the first photographs ever of the Golden-fronted Bowerbird strutting at its bower—a tower of twigs and other forest materials it builds for the mating ritual. <br> <br> The new species of honeyeater, the first new bird discovered on the island of New Guinea since 1939, has a bright orange face-patch with a pendant wattle under each eye, researchers added. Other discoveries included what may be the largest rhododendron flower on record – almost six inches across—along with more than 20 new frogs and four new butterflies. <br> <br> Local Kwerba and Papasena people, customary landowners of the forest, welcomed the exploration team and served as guides and naturalists on the expedition into the vast jungle tract, researchers said. These people told the team that game was hunted in abundance within an hour’s walk of the village. <br> <br> Such abundance of food and other resources means the mountain range’s interior – more than 300,000 hectares (900,000 acres) of old growth tropical forest – remains untouched by humans, the researchers said. The whole Foja forest tract of more than 1 million hectares (3 million acres) constitutes the largest essentially pristine tropical forest in Asia and an important region for biodiversity conservation, they added.</b></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Arial" size="2">* * *</font></p> <p><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/othernews/060207_lostfrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font></p> <p></b></p> </center></td> </tr> </table> </body>