Papua is rich in unique plants and animals, some of them beautiful and others downright weird. The largest indigenous land animal is not a mammal but a bird, the flightless, ostrich-like cassowary. Many of the island's native mammals are marsupials, and one, the hedgehog-like echidna, lays eggs.
In addition to this collection of oddities, West Papua is also home to some of nature's most glorious creatures—the birds of paradise and the great birdwing butterflies.
Diverse plant life
West Papua has the richest concentration of plant life in all of Indonesia, and perhaps in all the world. Scientists estimate there are 16,000 species of plants growing in New Guinea, including hundreds of species that are of medicinal importance. At least 124 genera of New Guinea's flowering plants are found nowhere else, and botanists suggest that further research may find 90 percent of all the flowering plant species here to be endemic.
So far, 2,770 species of orchids have been recorded here, most growing in the rich lowland forests, but the small, bright flowers of some can be found even in the subalpine meadows of the highlands.
Some species are quite unusual. Pitcher plants (Nepenthes spp.) have evolved a very interesting adaptation to nitrogen-poor soils. Their leaves form cups of enzyme-rich water, which attract and drown insects, providing an important source of fertilizer.
In the high scrublands in the central cordillera, one can find the giant anthouse plant (Myrmecodia brassii.) These epiphytes grow outward from trees, looking like a large, very spiny pineapple. The bulbous base of Myrmecodia is honeycombed with passageways just teeming with ants. Even small frogs and lizards have been found to live inside this strange plant.
Mangroves and nipa palms ensnarl the brackish estuaries of the coast, particularly in Bintuni Bay, the South Coast, and the edge of Cenderawasih Bay. Further inland—in the Lakes Plain region, and in the south—swamp forests replace the mangroves.
Swamps to alpine meadows
West Papua's swamps harbor the most extensive stands of sago palms (Metroxylon spp.) in the world. Starch extracted from the pith of this tree serves as the staple for all lowland West Papuans. Though western visitors often decry it as bland and gummy, sago has the distinct advantage of being the least labor-intensive of all of the world's staple crops to collect.
Further inland, the swamps give way to lowland forest and forested foothills. Here grow a variety of tropical evergreens, with palms, ferns, rattan and many species of orchids covering the understory.
The unusual hornbill, called burung tahun (year bird) in Indonesian.
At 1,000 to 3,000 meters the forest changes. In areas with constant cloud cover, one sometimes encounters the eerie moss forest, in which all the trees are encrusted with lichens and mosses in huge streamers. The pandanus grows here as well, producing huge fruits full of rich nuts.
The farmers of the central highlands have exploited the fertile soil surrounding some of the river valleys, most famously the Baliem. In most of the lowlands, with a few notable exceptions, the soil is leached and barren.
Past 3,000 meters, the forest thins out and gives way to strange, prehistoric-looking tree fern (Cyathea) savannahs. Here also are sub-alpine scrublands of rhododendrons and stunted conifers. Beyond the tree line (3,900 meters) one finds subalpine and alpine heaths and swamps, then just rock, snow and ice.
Unique biogeographical region
Sir Alfred Russel Wallace opened the world's eyes to West Papua's magnificent biological diversity. Between 1854 and 1862, Wallace sent a total of 125,660 specimens back to England, including a staggering 83,200 Coleoptera (beetles). A talented and scrupulously honest writer, Wallace estimates that he traveled 14,000 miles within the archipelago on some 60 to 70 separate journeys.
The magnificent riflebird, Ptiloris magnificus. Some 36 species of birds of paradise are found in West Papua.
Wallace was the first to recognize the marked change in faunal types as one moves east of Bali from the Asian to the Australian biological regions. The large area of biological overlap in between, including Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Nusa Tenggara, is now called 'Wallacea" in his honor.
New Guinea is well on the Australian side of Wallacea. Since the Arafura Sea is quite shallow, the rising and falling of the sea brought on by the Ice Ages have caused the two land masses to become periodically connected. Because of this—and because of the existence of marsupials and monotremes in both places—New Guinea is typically considered part of the Australian faunal province.
But recently biogeographers have suggested that the Australian influence may be exaggerated. For example, the land bridge connecting the two was always a dry savannah belt (see map page 20), which would have been a very effective barrier to rainforest species. Further, the majority of the amphibian species and many of the small mammals (e.g. rodents and bats) in New Guinea are Asian in origin.
Colorful avifauna
So far, biologists have identified 643 species of birds in West Papua (712 in all of New Guinea), and there are some real gems in this group. The Victoria crowned pigeon (Goura spp.), the world's largest pigeon, is a brilliant lavender with a delicate crown of feathers and bright red eyes. Parrots, cockatoos, and lories brighten up the forests with red, yellow, and purple.
During his eight years in the archipelago, Wallace spent six months in what is now West Papua, three months on the shores of Dore Bay and three months on Waigeo Island. Approaching the coast for the first time, Wallace tingled with anticipation, knowing that "those dark forests produced the most extraordinary and the most beautiful of the feathered inhabitants of the earth"—the birds of paradise. (See "Birds of Paradise" opposite.)
West Papua is home to some strange birds as well. The megapods or brush turkeys, which bury their eggs in sand or piles of vegetation, are found here. Bowerbirds, industrious creatures that decorate their large nests with bright objects such as flowers and berries, sometimes collecting small piles of objects of a single color, are present here in 9 species.
One of the most famous of West Papua's birds is the cassowary (Casuaris spp.), a large, flightless bird with a nasty reputation. These ugly customers have powerful feet ending in large claws, powerful weapons that have disemboweled more than one human victim. They are sought by hunters everywhere they are found, and the hair-like feathers are a common decoration on hats and other items.
Strange mammals
Marsupials dominate the list of mammals indigenous to West Papua. Unlike placental mammals, young marsupials complete their gestation in an external pouch. Wallabies and tree kangaroos, found in the lower mountain regions, are the largest of West Papua's native, land-dwelling mammals.
The striped possum, Dactylopsila trivirgata, is a common small marsupial in.
Other marsupials include bandicoots, possums and cuscus or phalangers, these latter woolly, tree-dwelling creatures with prehensile tails. Unfortunately for the cuscus, its fur is much appreciated for personal adornment, and its meat for food. Some cuscus are said to be so docile that capturing one requires nothing more than finding it and picking it up.
Huge bats, called flying foxes because of their long snouts, roam the forests on 1.5-meter wings seeking fruit, and an astonishing variety of tiny insectivorous species roam the night skies.
Perhaps the most unusual mammals in West Papua are the spiny anteaters or echidnas which, along with the Australian duckbilled platypus, are the world's only monotremes, unique egg-laying mammals. The short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus) is also found in Australia, but the long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijni) is endemic to New Guinea. When threatened, the echidna uses its powerful front claws to dig into the ground, presenting