In one of Asia’s most isolated jungles – the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea – naturalists have discovered a vast, unexplored preserve of exotic species new to science.
During a 15-day expedition in December, the researchers found hundreds of rare birds, more than 20 new species of frogs, five kinds of previously unknown palms, four new breeds of butterfly, and giant rhododendrons with white blossoms the size of bread plates – thought to be the largest on record.
All told, the 3,700 square miles of mist-shrouded tropical forest may be the most pristine natural area in Asia and the Pacific, Conservation International announced in Indonesia today.
“It is as close to the Garden of Eden as you’re going to find on Earth,” said expedition chief scientist Bruce Beehler.
Under the forest’s lush canopy, animals hunted to extinction elsewhere were so plentiful and unused to human contact that they approached the naturalists unafraid, allowing themselves to be handled easily and photographed.
Blazing trails with pink and yellow, the field team spotted 40 rare species of mammals, including six kinds of kangaroo.
They also encountered a bizarre spined, egg-laying, hedgehoglike mammal called the long-beaked echidna so docile that the scientists picked up a pair and carried them back to camp for study.
It was a journey that had taken a decade of planning.
“The politics and the environmental constraints of western New Guinea are changing all the time,” Beehler said. “It is difficult to get permits. By some miracle, everything came together.”
By the expedition’s best estimate, more than 300,000 hectares of the old-growth tropical forest have never been visited by humans. The heart of the highland, with summits 7,000 feet high, is so isolated that researchers could only reach it by helicopter.
“This is one of the last new places to go,” Beehler said. “This mountain range generates its own species, a little bit like the Galapagos.”
So far, finds include a new species of the honeyeater, the first new bird species discovered in New Guinea in more than 60 years.
The naturalists also obtained the first photographs of the golden-fronted bowerbird, a species previously known only from a few skins collected by local hunters.
