[lit-ideas] the remote
- From: JimKandJulieB@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 00:41:17 EST
I can't imagine what it must be like ... unadulterated beauty.
Julie Krueger
yearning to see the place
_http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060207/ap_on_sc/indonesia_new_species;_ylt=AjJghUIlsA5FMpSIS6a.wicDW7oF_
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060207/ap_on_sc/indonesia_new_species;_ylt=AjJghUIlsA5FMpSIS6a.wicDW7oF)
Scientists Discover Dozens of New Species
By ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press Writer2 hours, 19 minutes ago
A team of scientists exploring an isolated jungle in one of Indonesia's most
remote provinces said they discovered dozens of new species of frogs,
butterflies and plants â as well as large mammals hunted to near extinction
elsewhere.
The team also found wildlife that were remarkably unafraid of humans during
their rapid assessment survey of the Foja Mountains, which has more than two
million acres of old growth tropical forest, Bruce Beehler, a co-leader of the
monthlong trip, said in announcing the discoveries on Tuesday.
Two Long-Beaked Echidnas, a primitive egg-laying mammal, simply allowed
scientists to pick them up and bring them back to their camp to be studied, he
said.
Their findings, however, will have to be published and then reviewed by peers
before being officially classified as new species, a process that could take
six months to several years.
The December 2005 expedition to the eastern province of Papua was organized
by the U.S.-based environmental organization Conservation International and
the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.
"There was not a single trail, no sign of civilization, no sign of even local
communities ever having been there," said Beehler, adding that two headmen
from the Kwerba and Papasena tribes, the customary landowners of the Foja
Mountains, accompanied the expedition.
"They were as astounded as we were at how isolated it was," he told The
Associated Press in a telephone interview from Washington. "As far as they
knew,
neither of their clans had ever been to the area."
Papua, the scene of a decades-long separatist rebellion that has left an
estimated 100,000 people dead, is one of Indonesia's most remote provinces,
geographically and politically, and access by foreigners is tightly
restricted.
The 11-member team of U.S., Indonesian and Australian scientists needed six
permits before they could legally fly by helicopter to an open, boggy lakebed
surrounded by forests near the range's western summit.
The scientists said they discovered 20 frog species â including a tiny
microhylid frog less than a half-inch long â four new butterfly species, and
at
least five new types of palms.
Because of the rich diversity in the forest, the group rarely had to stray
more than a few miles from their base camp.
"We've only scratched the surface," said Beehler, vice president of
Conservation International's Melanesia Center for Biodiversity Conservation,
who
hopes to return later this year with other scientists.
One of the most remarkable discoveries was the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo,
an arboreal jungle-dweller new for Indonesia and previously thought to have
been hunted to near extinction, and a new honeyeater bird, which has a bright
orange face-patch with a pendant wattle under each eye, Beehler said.
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
was so abundant that they had 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 â
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."
____
On the Net:
Conservation International: http://www.conservation.org
Copyright  2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information
contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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