Papua, New Guinea is perhaps one of the last unexplored land areas in the world. The remote rainforests on this small island are known for their last indigenous cannibal tribes, some of which date to as early as 40,000 B.C. Scientists propose the first human settlement on the island could date back to 60,000 years back. Papua, New Guinea is the most culturally and linguistically diverse area in the world with close to a thousand different tribal groups and a similar number of separate languages.
The same history of isolation which produced such diversity is true for wildlife species. With about 786,000 km? of tropical land, which is less than 0.5% of the Earth’s surface, New Guinea has an immense biodiversity, containing between 5 to 10% of all species on our planet. For all of you bird-lovers the area also hosts the highest number of birds of paradise in the world! High percentage of wildlife species is unique only to this particular area, and thousands are still unknown to science. Many geographical barriers, such as thick rainforests without access points or steep cliffs, limit scientific exploration in the country which likely hosts numerous undiscovered species.
Last year Conservation International (CI) organized a month-long survey of three remote sites including the Nakanai and Muller mountain ranges, first travelling by a small plane and then continuing on dugout canoe, on foot, and by helicopter that delivered scientists and explorers to the mountain highlands. The team of explorers was made up of scientists from CI, the Papua New Guinea Institute of Biological Research and other research institutions, along with local community members and several officials from the provincial government. The result of their explorations was remarkable! The scientists catalogued more than 200 new species of wildlife and plants, including the “Yoda” bat — humorously named for its faithful resemblance to the original Yoda from “Star Wars“. To think of it, very likely Yoda also enjoyed a strict diet of fresh fruits.