Nieuwe diersoorten (foto's)

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‘Nieuwe dier en plantensoorten ontdekt op Nieuw Guinea’

**Ik woon op pakweg 350 km van het gebied waar de vondst is gedaan. **
**Ik hoop echt dat 't ongerept gebied met rust gelaten wordt. Multinationals (Mijnbouwgigant Freeport Mc Moran) en illegale houtkap syndicaten stellen hun financiele belangen voorop, wat tenkoste gaat van mens dier en plant.
**
vanua

Vreugde over ontdekking ‘paradijs op aarde’
ANP
Volkskrant 7 feb
LONDEN - Wetenschappers zijn dolgelukkig met de ontdekking van honderden nieuwe dier- en plantensoorten in de bergachtige regenwouden op Nieuw Guinea in Indonesië. Tijdens een expeditie in het zeer moeilijk begaanbare gebied zijn vogels, kikkers, vlinders en planten gevonden die nog niet bekend waren. De wetenschappers spreken dinsdag in The Independent van het vinden van het paradijs.

Vanuit het kamp dat de Amerikaanse onderzoekers eind vorig jaar in de jungle opsloegen, zagen ze zeldzame vogels baltsen, gigantische bloemen in prachtige kleuren, boomkangoeroes en stekelige miereneters. Ook vloog er een zeldzame, goudgevlekte prieelvogel. Ze ontdekten een enorme rododendron, vermoedelijk ‘s werelds grootste. Helemaal blij waren de onderzoekers toen ze een koppeltje paradijsvogels met zes lijnen op de kop zagen. De vogel, genoemd naar ornitholoog Berlepsch, zou zijn uitgestorven. Het dier was tot nu toe alleen maar geïdentificeerd uit veren van dode vogels

Photo’s: National Geograhic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_020607_lost_world.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/images/060207_lost_world.jpg

The golden-mantled tree kangaroo is just one of dozens of species discovered in late 2005 by a team of Indonesian, Australian, and U.S. scientists on the island of New Guinea.
The animal is the rarest arboreal, jungle-dwelling kangaroo in the world, the researchers say. This was the first time the mammal was found in Indonesia, making it only the second site in the world where the species is known to exist.
The kangaroo was discovered on an expedition in the Foja Mountains of Indonesia. The National Geographic Society, Conservation International, and the Biology Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences supported the expedition
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/photogalleries/newguinea/images/primary/Lost-World-2-honeyeater.jpg

The smoky honeyeater is the first new bird species to be discovered on the island of New Guinea since 1939.

Scientists discovered the bird on a recent expedition to the Foja Mountains of Indonesia, on the island of New Guinea.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/photogalleries/newguinea/images/primary/Lost-World-3-bowerbird.jpg

In late 2005 scientists on the island of New Guinea took this first ever photo of the golden-fronted bowerbird, a bird known to exist since the 1890s but whose precise home was unknown until the 1980s.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/photogalleries/newguinea/images/primary/Lost-World-4-BOP.jpg

This is the first photograph ever taken of what scientists are calling New Guinea’s “lost” bird of paradise.

The bird—known as Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise—had been collected only once in the wild since its discovery more than a century ago. Its precise home range was unknown until now.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/photogalleries/newguinea/images/primary/Lost-World-5-frog.jpg

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This small frog is 1 of more than 20 new frog species discovered by scientists on an expedition in New Guinea in late 2005.

The tiny frog measures a mere 0.6 inch (14 millimeters) long and was detected only when it produced a soft call from among leaves on the steepest part of the forest floor

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Jakarta Post 08 feb
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Soon after scientists landed by helicopter in the misty mountains of a remote Indonesian province, they stumbled on a primitive egg-laying mammal that simply allowed itself to be picked up and brought to their field camp.
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 with 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 said.
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.”
Minutes after the small team of American, Indonesian and Australian scientists were dropped into a 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. 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 photo of the bird.
The scientists said they discovered 20 frog species – including one 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 said the echidnas probably had never come into contact with humans.
AP