Slashdot Mirror
Scientists Find New Species In Remote New Guinea
An anonymous reader writes "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 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."
How do they taste?
Hopefully this might provide more public incentive in terms of supporting conservation efforts.
Cogito, ergo sum, fosho!
So anyone taking bets on how long it will take before these 'hunted to near extinction' mammals will really be extinct?
I just hope that this won't really attract tourists and such. It would be a shame.
Ellidi
the team also found wildlife that were remarkably unafraid of humans
That's what happens whenever you find animals that haven't encountered humans before. Thing is, the after the first few encounters they'll sort themselves into two groups.
One group is the ones who learn to be afraid of us. The other, well . . .
xkcd.com - a webcomic of mathematics, love, and language.
Sarcasm on
They could only reach the remote mountainous area by helicopter, which they described it as akin to finding a "Garden of Eden".
Wood logging companies & local farmers have been found willing to provide easier access to the area, as a local farmer said:
I will burn down 5 hectares a month to create new places for my crops. That way tourist will be able to get closer to these pretty animals everyday without having to endanger them (the editor: By them he meant the tourist, because everybody knows that road travel in Indonesia is the safest way to travel) by helicopter.
A loggin company responded too:
2 million years without forest maintenance is not good for tourism. We are willing to trim the trees for easier access.
Sarcasm off
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
Which is the closest thing to a sex life these scientists have ever had in their bespectacled, nerdy lives. ... Bespectacled? nerdy? I must be projecting heavily here.
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
This whole island: Papua and W New Guinea is too dangerous for normal people to consider going there. But is has forests and wildlife which have been wiped out in most other parts of Asia.
If the politics can be sorted out the people living there will be sitting on an economic goldmine from tourism alone.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Homer:Do'h Do'h.
really 867993
Karma schkarma
I don't understand the dangerous comment? I was there in 1994 when I was in the Marines and it didn't seem dangerous to me at all. The people were actually very friendly and the diving is awesome.
They did warn us not to go anywhere alone but there was some kind of civil war going on at the time. That was nowhere near Papua though.
Overall, I thought it was a pretty cool place!
...we'll have to send a number of scientists into the area to catalog all these new finds. Several teams of to catalog plants, birds, insects, mammels, etc. Then we'll need to create research areas for these scientists to work, because they'll need time to do all the research needed. Naturally, they'll need supplies, and flying in supplies to so many scientists will be extremely costly, so we should build a few roads to deliver goods to all the areas they'll be working in. It's a large area, so we should probably build a little infrastructure for refueling and medical needs, as well. That infrastructure will require power, so we should run a number of power lines to each of the various places. Of course, with this much research to be done, it would be a lot to ask for those scientists to have to leave their families behind for long periods of time, so we should build accomodations for their families. Those kids of theirs will need an education, so schools are a must. All work and no play is bad for morale, so we should build a few different types of entertainment for the residents, too. Naturally, with this many people in a newly discovered source of rare and unknown plants and animals, we need to make sure no one takes animals and plants out of the area, so we'll need to make sure we provide a healthy number of resource control officers, and they have needs and families as well. Geez, with this many people, we're bound to have crime and disorganization, so we'll need police and government officials to help maintain the order. Of course, we'll need judges and lawyers, to keep the police and politicians honest and make sure balance is maintained somewhat. We'll need construction workers to help build all this, and they'll need... :)
Microsoft has just released their much anticipated hands-free cordless mouse. Warning, it may hurt a little at first.
"suggesting its previous contact with man was negligible."
Let's try, suggesting that there are no natural predators? I thought we just went through the whole speil of bad science and what that does to someone's credibility...
If you read the article you may have notice the passing reference to the giant cassowary. It's basically a four foot chicken with a bad temper and a crazy look in its eye who can use its razor-sharp talons to disembowel a man where he stands. That's right, this is one of the last remaining birds that can easily kill a person and while it's not a man-eater, I'm sure there are plenty of other animals in the jungle that would be happy to let the cassowary play the butcher and carve you up like a holiday ham for their culinary delight. So before you start wondering about what kind of wine to server with tree kangaroo, you might first stop to ask yourself, how do you taste.
How ironic, I happen to be reading the Lost World now. I did read years ago that remote parts of Papua New Guinea are considered among the last unexplored regions outside of Antartica (parts of Mongolia being the other). I'm all for exploration but I hope the Indonesian authorities make every effort to preserve this 4,000 sq mile habitat.
any idea when pictures are going to show up? magazines? tv specials?
What extra features does this new guinea pig have?
Are these large mammals, per chance, violent in nature?
Do they like to toss around wooden objects?
Ik know of only one wild Stevus Ballmerus in our world. Maybe they found the origin of the Throwus Chairus family?
Did they find the Koala/Dolphin cross hinted at here with a picture here ?
Just started reading "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond yesterday. An interesting book which promises to trace and explain the evolution of human societies.
The book starts out by mentioning how large mammals went extinct in America and Australia when humans reached there. The reason was because these animals evolved without co-existing with man(hunter) and hence did not develop a natural fear of man. As a result when man came upon them, he literally clubbed them to extinction.
I guess the new mammals(tree kangaroos, spiny anteaters...) that are being found in New Guinea may be slightly better off than their ancestors because of the better understanding of conservation/environmental awareness our present world has.
Still I wonder how many of these new species will still be around(in the wild) in about 30-40 years?
You know what we really need out here? An -mart. (insert your choice of big box store here).
Humanity replicates familiar environments, not because we need them, but because the presence of familiarity reduces stress. Any species would do the same thing. Ants build anthills. Cats mark their territories. Humans build highways and cities and suburbs and strip malls. It's our "thing".
"Nobody's ever going to make any money on the internet"
--VP of the company I worked for, circa 1995
Or there maybe could be something to this new "Theory" of "Evolution".
How many more of these discoveries do we need before the fanatics finally give it up?
Tree Kangaroos. Five hundred previously unknown plant species. Wow. Just wow.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
"This is a place with no roads or trails and never, so far as we know, visited by man ... This proves there are still places to be discovered that man has not touched."
Lets keep it that way. "Do Not Feed The Animal" sign is kinda getting old right now.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
It's finds like this which make me wonder: are there still what we consider to be "dinosaurs" - and what were considered "dragons" prior to 1850 or so - roaming the remote places of the earth? There seems to be quite a few first-hand accounts of such sightings, but no hard evidence.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Cats have an added advantage surviving in a human dominated environment. As my Chinese friend told me when I asked whether Chinese people really eat cats: "No!! Cat sour."
"Nobody's ever going to make any money on the internet"
--VP of the company I worked for, circa 1995
When will they be hosing them down with tugboats?
Keanu? Is that you?
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Hopefully this might provide more public incentive in terms of supporting conservation efforts.
This raises some interesting possibilities. According to some of the local tribes, Thylacines supposedly still exist in some of the high mountain valleys of New Guinea. It would be really nice if a viable population was found and this sounds like just the place where that might happen. If that was the case the I bet the Australians will be interested.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Recommended Reading: Throwim Way Leg - Tim Flannery
Documents the journy's of a mammalian biologist during his 11 years in Puapua New Guinuie
*First Contact with new tribes
*Discovery of new spiders, snakes, tree kangaroos etc
For the ignorants out there, an area of two million acres is equivalente to a 1,264M Volkwagens one.
No, really.
--
Superb hosting 20GB Storage, 1_TB_ bandwidth, ssh, $7.95
which has more than two million acres of old growth tropical forest.
Does somebody say wood chipping?
bash$
they find some way of protecting this new proverbial garden of eden. It would be really upsetting if evil poachers got into the area and started killing everything. And lets hope the government dosen't do anything stupid and allows the area to be studied. Alternativly, we can be like brazil and bulldoze millions of hectares of forestland, destroying potential new drugs and wiping out never before seen genetic traits for a bit of wood and farmland. But arguably the aesthetic value and opportunity to study these strange new creature based overlords would be far more invaluable. Turn it into untouchable national park!
Best location reference I can find on Google for the Foja Mountains is:
02 29' S, 138 00' E
Type into Google Earth and zoom out.
It's not that hard to find a new species- walk into any isolated forested region on earth and before you know it you'll be batting away unclassified insects, hacking your way through undiscovered shrubs, and if you're really unlucky, being poisoned by some new snake venom or frog toxin. People should realise that we really don't know shit about what's in the rainforests of the Amazon, never mind Papua New Guinea.
This is, however an excellent discovery, and I don't mean to just dismiss the achievements of the scientists involved- I just want to point out that there are thousands of types of plants and animals out there that we haven't classified yet.
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
...frogs, butterflies and plants. And one giant gorilla, of course. :)
1) Travel to remote, unexplored area via barge 2) Find rare species of animal, kill, cut off distinct physiological feature 3) ??? 4) Profit!
Here it is. Free registration/bugmenot required :-).
-A
"- What's so unpleasant about being drunk?"
"- You ask a glass of water."[from h2g2]
"The team also found wildlife that were remarkably unafraid of humans"
/.
Indeed, women truly are inhuman. For them to make such a discovery only now, one could easily tell the team is from
After a thorough scrubbing, the new title of this scientific discovery reads:
"Two million acres of old growth tropical forest discovered; available to the highest timber-industry bidder."
Any nasty hobbitses?
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
From the article: Like all the mammals found in the area, it was completely unafraid of humans and could be easily picked up, suggesting its previous contact with man was negligible.
I suppose it would be impossible for humans to interact with animals in such kind or friendly ways that the animals wouldn't learn to be frightened of them, eh? That's too bad.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
What are we waiting for to send bulldozers over there?
You just got troll'd!
Swear to God, the folks who think "environmentalists" are irritating luddites who want to return humanity to the stone age have already long since had the thought: "If these 'near extinction' species can be found in a place like this, then they don't need to be protected quite so much. What was all the stink about? Can the island of Komodo put out licenses on dragons yet?..."
Those people bend any environmental issue into a caricature. Spotted owls were just a representative of the entire temperate rainforest ecosystem they lived in, they weren't the whole story. It still took no time for the stereotype of the whacky environmentalist who wants to ruin a whole industry to protect the spotted owl to spring up.
Even convincing that sort of person to preserve "hot spots" like this one is an uphill battle, leaving alone general conservation issues. In the US, the Republican Party that produced Teddy Roosevelt is long gone, having been split in the 1910s...
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
I still do have the opportunity to cause a species to become extinct.
Go ahead and mod me down. Damn tree-huggers!
the newly found species wont be around long as the indonesian army (tni) controlled / protected loggers eat up the two million acres of old growth tropical forest. the indigenous population is also facing genocide from the same tni, with massive resettlements from the overcrowded central indonesia. the widespread poverty, cronyism and corruption of local officials, and military and police ongoping human rights violations screams out that the island is in crisis. dont hold your breath to see coverage on cnn or faux news. a large part of these profits go to buy more usa military hardware to continue the reign of the armed forces.
source - cia world facts & google
Wow, I was shocked how long it took for the first person to start THE argument that happens every time any science article is posted. The parent will eventually be modded +5 Insightful and all posts from that time forward will be about Evolution and Intelligent Design and the original article will be a distant memory.
Most people don't realize how high the mountain range that runs down the spine of New Guinea is... the article mentions the Foja Mountains go up to about 2200 meters (which is in the 6500 to 7000 foot range which is only half the height of the highest peaks on the range, but still, given the differences between there and sea level, spectacularly rugged. Puncak Jaya (aka Mt. Wilhelm) is the highest peak on an island in the world.
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ
I, for one, welcome our new endemic Foja Mountains overlords!
Haven't any of you seen Le Valle (The Valley - Obscured by Clouds)?
Pink Floyd was there in 1973...
The scientists proceeded to whip out their rifles and go hunting. The newly discovered species' expected survival time is no more than two years before repeated extinction.
m
I tastes just like bald eagle!
That's your signal to run for your life.
The last time I was down there, New Guinea was still an independant country. Independance happened in the 70's or 80's I believe when Australia released them. (it is not owned by Indonesia as the article states)
The other half of the Island had renamed itself West Papua, but it used to be called Irian Jaya. It is claimed by Indonesia.
So we don't need to look to the stars to find new life forms after all.
OH come now WWII Japanese soldier still fighting the war, hasn't had a hair cut in a while.
AlienSlave
Exoskeletons are what insects have. Endoskeletons are what Terminators and mammals have.
if you want to meet new species visit colombia!!!, is great.
You can't find new stuff when you're sitting behind a desk in a university basement. Seek, and ye shall find!
hell yeah!
Do the chickens have large talons?
I mean even my girlfriends cat heads for the hills when it sees other people. Not to mention just about every other known critter domesticated or no hauling ass when they see humans. OH NO ITS A HUMAN.....run! run for your life! Looks like the real snakes just got into the garden of Eden. I wonder if that anteater those scientists picked up ended up on a spit by the end of the expedition.
For some reason I refuse to use either spell check or the spacebar properly.
In terms of type of criminal activity, I'd rate anywhere around the Medlock and between UMIST and Picadilly Circus as about on-par with the worst of Thailand or the Philipines.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
A field trip in Indonesia that turns up a few dozen is hardly newsworthy.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
The headline says "New Guinea" whereas the new species was discovered in an area known either as "West Papua" or "Irian Jaya". New Guinea shares the same island, but is a different country.
... chicken ? ;) :p
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
While I agree with what you say, evolution on an island happens much quicker than on a continent.
Therefore we are likely to find life that has evolved much further than life on a continent. Or perhaps it has just evolved differently.
Either way islands force life to deal with limited resources and adapt, or die and become extinct.
Libertas in infinitum
There will come a time when people look back on meat-eaters, hunters, etc., in the present day with as much disapproval as we look back on slave-traders and slave-owners of the past.
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
So anyone taking bets on how long it will take before these 'hunted to near extinction' mammals will really be extinct?
Don't be silly. We NEED to go shoot and stuff them, to preserve them for future generations.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Sure, but with one of these nice "clean" bombs, eh ? Could perhaps paint it pink. Or even green if you really wanted to be funny. Not to worry - have yourself a really nice day.
How many beans make five, anyhow ?
Sorry, but an absurd claim like this one undermines your credibility.
Are you aware of the state of modern genetic research into human ancestry? Do you think your claim will hold up in the face of new experiments?
Race is a joke. Woohoo, we all have lighter or darker skin, facial features, maybe some other minor physiological variations like digestive enzymes adapted to local environment. Whatever.
Any further distinction is cultural. If you think we're more different than that, you really need to get out and meet more people. We're all pretty much the same.
Racists piss me off. They are detrimental to our species.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey