Indonesian New Guinea Adventure Guide - David Pickell Periplus Adventure Guides

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with a back-full of stout spines.

      Birds of Paradise

      Long before the world knew anything of the habits and habitats of the beautiful birds of paradise, their feathers enhanced the appearance of the rich and powerful. Paradise bird plumes graced the headdresses of fierce janissaries at the 14th century Turkish court, and were de rigueur at the Nepalese court, and the courts of other colorful potentates. In the 1880s, the Paris fashion world discovered the plumes, and thousands of birds were slaughtered to adorn capes, hats and other accessories. The trade was banned in 1924, but the ban has been as full of holes as the smuggler's ocean is wide.

      Malay traders called them manuk dewata—the gods' birds. The Portuguese called them passaros de sol, "birds of the sun." A learned Dutchman, writing in Latin, coined the name, avis paradiseus, "bird of paradise."

      A great body of myth has developed around these birds, and well into the 18th century Europeans still believed that the birds came from Paradise. They had no feet, and thus remained always in the air, living on the dew of heaven and the blossoms of spice trees. The female, it was believed, even laid her eggs and incubated them on the back of the male.

      In 1598 the Dutch navigator Jan van Linschoten, wrote: "[N]o one has seen these birds alive, for they live in the air, always turning towards the sun and never lighting on the earth till they die, for they have no feet or wings." Even in 1760, Carolus Linnaeus, the famous Swedish taxonomist, christened the largest species Paradisaea apoda: "footless paradise bird."

      All these myths were simply the result of the Aru Islanders method of preserving the skins: the wings and feet were cut off, the body skinned up to the beak and the skull removed. The birds have been hunted for centuries with bow and arrow, and more recently, with mist nets.

      Paradisaeidae comprises 42 species, 36 of which inhabit New Guinea and its neighboring islands. The family is quite varied, and includes birds of paradise, riflebirds, sicklebills and manucodes. All have beautiful coloration and odd feathers—iridescent breastplates, shaggy napes, fans, and strange "wires." The most characteristic are the Paradisaea spp., crow-like birds, the males of which in the breeding season sprout beautiful nuptial plumes from their sides.

      The greater bird of paradise (Paradisaea apoda) and the lesser bird of paradise (P. minor) are relatively common inhabitants of West Papua's lowland rainforests, but seeing them can be difficult. Paradisaea are omnivorous, eating a variety of insects and being especially partial to nutmeg and mahogany fruits. Groups of males display together, often in the main food tree in the area, which makes for a spectacular sight (it also makes them very vulnerable to hunters.)

      According to observations in the Asmat region (on the coast near Otsjanep) the greater bird of paradise was in full breeding plumage and displayed from August to early September, for a few hours in the morning, beginning at 6:15 a.m., and again at 2:30-5:45 p.m.

      An Asmat hunter with two greater birds of paradise, Paradisaea apoda.

      Reptiles and amphibians

      Two species of saltwater crocodiles frequent the coastal swamps and estuaries of West Papua, and both are giants. An estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) that had been terrorizing the Asmat village of Piramat was finally killed in 1970. This rogue beast was 7 meters long and was known to have taken 55 human victims. Crocodile skins have been an important export since the early 20th century, and crocodiles have been almost wiped out in some areas. Hunting wild crocodiles is now at least technically illegal, and some 25 farms in the province raise them for their skins.

      A great variety of snakes and lizards are found here. Varanids or monitor lizards are common scavengers and prey on small animals. The largest of these, the beautiful emerald tree monitor (Varanis prasinus) may reach three meters in length, although it is shy and not dangerous.

      The same cannot be said for the death adder (Acanthopsis antarcticus) or the taipan (Oxyuranus scutellatus). These two are extremely venomous, but fortunately are rarely encountered. The most beautiful snake found here—perhaps anywhere—is the green tree python (Chondropython viridis), a harmless creature with strikingly green coloration and jewel-like markings.

      The only amphibians native to the island are frogs (the large marine toad has been introduced), but there are more frogs in New Guinea than anywhere else, with well over 200 species, some hardy ones found up to 3,850 meters.

      Beautiful and rare fishes

      The swampy south coast of West Papua is too silty to allow the growth of coral, but around Triton Bay near Kaimana, off the Raja Empat Islands, and around the islands of Cenderawasih Bay are some of the finest and least disturbed coral reefs in the world.

      As they are so close to the epicenter of species diversity for the vast Indo-Pacific region, New Guinea coral reefs probably harbor some 3,000 species of fish. Important food fish—tuna, jacks, mackerel—support a large fishing industry off Biak Island and Sorong.

      West Papua's freshwater lakes and streams contain 158 species of rainbowfishes. These small, and often colorful fishes are found only in New Guinea and Australia and are favorites with aquarists.

      The Archer fish (Toxotes spp.) is a small, unremarkably colored inhabitant of some of West Papua's lakes, slow rivers and swamps. This animal's talent is the ability to spit a gob of water—with astounding accuracy—to bring down insects. The insects are eaten as soon as they strike the surface of the water.

      Some of West Papua's freshwater species are giants. The sawfish (Pristiopsis spp.) prowls the large river systems and some of West Papua's lakes, including Lake Sentani. These distinctive animals can reach 5.2 meters, and weigh almost half a metric ton. The people living around Sentani believe their ancestral spirits live in these sawfish and refuse to eat them. Lake Yamur, at the base of the Bird's Head, is said to be one of the very few places in the world that one encounters freshwater sharks.

      Birdwing butterflies

      The colorful princes of West Papua's insect fauna are the birdwing butterflies (Ornithoptera spp.), which can be found in all parts of New Guinea but reach their greatest numbers and diversity in the Arfak Mountains just inland from Manokwari. These butterflies are covered with shimmering colors. Recently, a captive farming project has begun to raise these creatures for the lucrative export market in dried and mounted butterflies.

      New Guinea probably has almost 100,000 insect species, and many of these are still undescribed. In the forests one can find great stick insects and katydids—some of them startlingly accurate mimics—as well as tens of thousands of species of beetles.

      The capricorn beetle, a tank of a creature, lays its eggs on the sago palm, and its large larvae are prized as food by the Asmat of the South Coast. The sago grubs are an essential feature of every ceremonial banquet.

      Spiders, too, are found here in great numbers—some 800 species. These include the formidable giant bird-eating spider (Selenocosmia crassides), whose size and aggressiveness allow it to reverse the usual order of prey and preyed upon.

      A precious environment

      New Guinea has the world's second-largest rainforest (after the Amazon) and West Papua has the largest tracts of undisturbed lowland rainforest in all of Southeast Asia. These lowland alluvial forests contain valuable timber reserves, making them a major target of the logging industry.

      In the mid-1980s, through the efforts of the World Wildlife Fund, an ambitious program of conservation areas was adopted for West Papua. Today, almost 20 percent of the province's land area is a conservation area of one kind or another, making West Papua—at least on paper—one of the best-protected pieces of real estate in the world.

      Although the problems of exploitation are still great, West Papua's inherent ruggedness and isolation will do a lot to insure the protection of its forests. Also, unlike, for example, Borneo, West Papua is not very rich in the most valuable species of tropical hardwoods.

      It is the marine areas around West Papua that are most in danger. Great fields of the giant tridacna clams (which can grow

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