"Lost world" found in Indonesia - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Reese · 02-09-2006, 01:01 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060207/...onment_species

Quote:

OSLO (Reuters) - Scientists said on Tuesday they had found a "Lost World" in an Indonesian mountain jungle, home to dozens of exotic new species of birds, butterflies, frogs and plants.

"It's as close to the Garden of Eden as you're going to find on Earth," said Bruce Beehler, co-leader of the U.S., Indonesian, and Australian expedition to part of the cloud-shrouded Foja mountains in the west of New Guinea.

Indigenous peoples living near the Foja range, which rises to 2,200 metres (7,218 ft), said they did not venture into the trackless area of 3,000 sq km (1,200 sq miles) -- roughly the size of Luxembourg or the U.S. state of Rhode Island.

The team of 25 scientists rode helicopters to boggy clearings in the pristine zone.

"We just scratched the surface," Beehler told Reuters. "Anyone who goes there will come back with a mystery."

The expedition found a new type of honeyeater bird with a bright orange patch on its face, known only to local people and the first new bird species documented on the island in over 60 years. They also found more than 20 new species of frog, four new species of butterfly and plants including five new palms.

And they took the first photographs of "Berlepsch's six-wired bird of paradise", which appears in 19th century collections but whose home had previously been unknown.

The bird is named after six fine feathers about 4 inches (10 cm) long on the head of the male which can be raised and shaken in courtship displays.

BIRD, BOWER, BERRIES

The expedition also took the first photographs of a Golden-fronted bowerbird in front of a bower made of sticks, while he was hanging up blue forest berries to attract females.

It found a rare tree kangaroo, previously unsighted in Indonesia. Beehler said the naturalists reckoned that there was likely to be a new species of kangaroo living higher altitudes.

The scientists visited in the wet season, which limited the numbers of flying insects. "Any expedition visiting in the dry season would probably discover many more butterflies," he said.

Beehler, who works at Conservation International in Washington, said the area was probably the largest pristine tropical forest in Asia. Animals there were unafraid of humans.

"I suspect there are some areas like this in Africa, and am sure that there are similar places in South America," he said.

Around the world, pristine areas are under increasing threat from expanding human settlements and pollution. A U.N. meeting in Brazil in March will seek ways to slow the currently accelerating rate of extinctions.

Beehler said the Indonesian government was doing the right thing by keeping the area off limits to most visitors -- including loggers and mineral prospectors.

The scientists cut two trails about 4 km (2.5 miles) long, leaving vast tracts still to be explored.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060208/...sia_lost_world

Quote:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Soon after scientists landed by helicopter in the mist-shrouded mountains of one of Indonesia's most remote provinces, they stumbled on a primitive egg-laying mammal that simply allowed itself to be picked up and brought to their field camp.
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Describing a "Lost World" — apparently never visited by humans — members of the team said Tuesday they also saw large mammals that have been hunted to near-extinction elsewhere and discovered dozens of exotic new species of frogs, butterflies and palms.

"We've only scratched the surface," said Bruce Beehler, a co-leader of the monthlong trip to the Foja Mountains, an area in the eastern province of Papua with roughly 2 million acres of pristine tropical forest.

"There was not a single trail, no sign of civilization, no sign of even local communities ever having been there," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

Two headmen from the Kwerba and Papasena tribes, the customary landowners of the mountain range, accompanied the expedition, and "they were as astounded as we were at how isolated it was," Beehler said.

"As far as they knew, neither of their clans had ever been to the area."

The December expedition was organized by U.S.-based Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and funded by the
National Geographic Society and several other organizations.

Minutes after the small team of American, Indonesian and Australian scientists were dropped into a boggy lake bed and set up camp near the mountain range's western summit, they said they encountered a new species of bird — a red-faced and wattled honeyeater.

The next day they saw Berlepsch's Six-wired Bird of Paradise, described by hunters in the 19th century and named for the wires that extend from its head in place of a crest.

They watched in amazement as a male bird performed a courtship dance for a female, shaking the long feathers on his head, and later took the first known photograph of the bird.

The scientists said they discovered 20 frog species — including a microhylid frog less than a half-inch long — four new butterfly species, and at least five new types of palms.

Among their most memorable experiences were their encounters with the Long-beaked Echidna, members of the primitive egg-laying group of mammals called the Monotremes, which twice allowed themselves to be picked up and brought to the scientists' camp for observation.

Beehler attributed the lack of fear displayed by the long-snouted spine-covered Echidnas (pronounced eh-KID-na) to the fact that they probably had never come into contact with humans.

But other animals, like the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo, an arboreal jungle-dweller previously thought to have been hunted to near-extinction, were much more shy, he said, and quickly disappeared into the dense forest after being spotted.

Though the scientists' findings will have to be published in scientific journals and reviewed by peers before being officially classified as new species, other environmentalists said the discoveries were hardly surprising in a country renowned for its rich biodiversity.

"There are many species that have not been identified" in Indonesia, said Chairul Saleh of the World Wildlife Fund, which has made hundreds of its own discoveries in the sprawling archipelago in the last 10 years.

Papua, the scene of a decades-long separatist rebellion that has killed an estimated 100,000 people, is one of Indonesia's most remote regions geographically and politically, and access by foreigners is tightly restricted.

The scientists said they needed six permits before they could legally visit the mountains located on the western side of New Guinea island.

Stephen Richards of the South Australia Museum in Adelaide said he and other team members got a glimpse of what the island "was like 50,000 years ago, because there's been no hunting, no impact of transport or anything like that."

Because of the rich diversity in the forest, the group rarely had time to stray more than a few miles from their base camp.

Beehler, vice president of Conservation International's Melanesia Center for Biodiversity Conservation, said he hopes to return this year with other scientists.

One of the reasons for the rain forest's isolation, he said, was that only a few hundred people live in the region and game in the mountain's foothills is so abundant they have no reason to venture into the jungle's interior.

There did not appear to be any immediate conservation threat to the area, which has the status of a wildlife sanctuary, he said.

"No logging permits are given to this area, there is no transport system — not a single road," Beehler said.

"But clearly, with time, everything is a threat. In the next few decades there will be strong demands, especially if you think of the timber needs of nearby countries like China and Japan. They will be very hungry for logs."

I read about this in the local newspaper the other day and thought it was really cool. It's amazing how there's more than 6 billion people on earth, and we can travel across the world in hours yet there's places like this that's been untouched for centuries.

Sweetpea · 02-09-2006, 01:04 PM

amazing! and uplifting. hopefully, we'll be able to leave it alone and not screw it up. But seeing as how they already picked one of the animals up and brought it to base camp

ten to one... we will find something in it that we want and destory the whole thing

sweetpea

analog · 02-09-2006, 06:07 PM

One of these days, we'll find a plant or animal that shits the cure for cancer or AIDS or something... and lots of people will live the lives they should have been allowed.

greytone · 02-09-2006, 06:08 PM

In todays world of "ecotourism" I am sure someone is already planning a hotel and resort for the masses to experience untouched nature.

ObieX · 02-09-2006, 09:02 PM

They showed some pictures of the newly found creatures on the news and they were pretty neat looking.

The one bird mentioned with the color on it's face was really interesting. The frogs looked like regular frogs tho from what i saw. i didnt se any colorful ones. Kinda a diahrrea brown.

ObieX · 02-09-2006, 09:03 PM

Doh spoke too soon. there's pics at the links. More colorful than i thought

msh58 · 02-09-2006, 09:35 PM

wow, thats really incredible. can just imagine what it must of been like to just walk through there where so few people have ever been. Must have been just incredible. Glad the people that did go weren't there to trash the place.

great article, thank you.

Ustwo · 02-09-2006, 10:42 PM

Just as a side note, people really don't trash this type of enviroment that much.

The problem is what people bring, mainly rats and cats, but also plants as well. Clearing some fields and the like doesn't destroy the native species, but adding competition they have no defense against does.

Personally I love cats, but they should be exterminated in places like Hawaii and other islands.

poundpuppy34 · 02-09-2006, 10:53 PM

Let us just hope that our discovery of it dosent lead a strain of bactirium or mutant gene into this area and kill everything off

Suave · 02-09-2006, 11:00 PM

That is so cool. I would really like to go there and visit (although at the same time not, since it would be 'polluting' it in a way).

raeanna74 · 02-10-2006, 07:05 AM

This is amazing. I don't think we'll ever delve the depths of this planet completely. There will always be some new thing to discover and learn about. How complex and nearly perfect in it's natural state, this world is.

Cynthetiq · 02-10-2006, 05:21 PM

Every so often they find patches of unexplored or untouched spaces within Indonesia and the rest of South East Asia. If you've ever been there, you'd understand that there are some really really remote places out there.

Every decade or so that I can recall, they find a new species that hasn't been documented before out in that part of the world.

02-09-2006, 01:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
Sweetpea Fade out Location: in love	amazing! and uplifting. hopefully, we'll be able to leave it alone and not screw it up. But seeing as how they already picked one of the animals up and brought it to base camp ten to one... we will find something in it that we want and destory the whole thing sweetpea __________________ Having a Pet Will Change Your Life! Looking for a great pet?! Click Here! "I am the Type of Person Who Can Get Away With A lot, Simply Because I Don't Ask Permission for the Privilege of Being Myself"

02-09-2006, 06:08 PM	#4 (permalink)
greytone Junkie	In todays world of "ecotourism" I am sure someone is already planning a hotel and resort for the masses to experience untouched nature. __________________ I was there to see beautiful naked women. So was everybody else. It's a common failing. Robert A Heinlein in "They Do It With Mirrors"

02-09-2006, 09:02 PM	#5 (permalink)
ObieX Pickles Location: Shirt and Pants (NJ)	They showed some pictures of the newly found creatures on the news and they were pretty neat looking. The one bird mentioned with the color on it's face was really interesting. The frogs looked like regular frogs tho from what i saw. i didnt se any colorful ones. Kinda a diahrrea brown. __________________ We Must Dissent. Last edited by ObieX; 02-09-2006 at 09:47 PM..

02-09-2006, 09:03 PM	#6 (permalink)
ObieX Pickles Location: Shirt and Pants (NJ)	Doh spoke too soon. there's pics at the links. More colorful than i thought __________________ We Must Dissent.

02-09-2006, 10:42 PM	#8 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	Just as a side note, people really don't trash this type of enviroment that much. The problem is what people bring, mainly rats and cats, but also plants as well. Clearing some fields and the like doesn't destroy the native species, but adding competition they have no defense against does. Personally I love cats, but they should be exterminated in places like Hawaii and other islands. __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

02-09-2006, 06:07 PM	#3 (permalink)
analog Banned	One of these days, we'll find a plant or animal that shits the cure for cancer or AIDS or something... and lots of people will live the lives they should have been allowed.

02-09-2006, 09:35 PM	#7 (permalink)
msh58 Crazy	wow, thats really incredible. can just imagine what it must of been like to just walk through there where so few people have ever been. Must have been just incredible. Glad the people that did go weren't there to trash the place. great article, thank you.

02-09-2006, 10:53 PM	#9 (permalink)
poundpuppy34 Tilted	Let us just hope that our discovery of it dosent lead a strain of bactirium or mutant gene into this area and kill everything off

02-09-2006, 11:00 PM	#10 (permalink)
Suave Twitterpated Location: My own little world (also Canada)	That is so cool. I would really like to go there and visit (although at the same time not, since it would be 'polluting' it in a way). __________________ "Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

02-10-2006, 07:05 AM	#11 (permalink)
raeanna74 I'm not a blonde! I'm knot! I'm knot! I'm knot! Location: Upper Michigan	This is amazing. I don't think we'll ever delve the depths of this planet completely. There will always be some new thing to discover and learn about. How complex and nearly perfect in it's natural state, this world is. __________________ "Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama My Karma just ran over your Dogma.

02-10-2006, 05:21 PM	#12 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	Every so often they find patches of unexplored or untouched spaces within Indonesia and the rest of South East Asia. If you've ever been there, you'd understand that there are some really really remote places out there. Every decade or so that I can recall, they find a new species that hasn't been documented before out in that part of the world. __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!