New Species Found

Pictured to the right is the first known photograph of the Berlepsch's Six-Wired Bird of Paradise, first described by hunters in the 19th Century, taken during a recent expedition by a team of international scientists--from the US, Indonesia and Australia--surveying a region near the Foja Mountains in the Papua province in eastern Indonesia, which covers an area of more than a million hectares (two million acres) of forest, in which many new species of animals, plants, frogs, and butterflies were discovered, as well as a few thought to be extinct, such as the Goldeb-Mantled Tree Kangaroo. One of the scientists commented that some of the creatures the team came into contact with were remarkably unafraid of humans: two Long-Beaked Echidnas, primitive egg-laying mammals, allowed scientists to pick them up and bring them back to their camp to be studied. The team, originally organised by the US-based organization Conservation International together with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, hopes to return to the area within the next year. "We just scratched the surface. Anyone who goes there will come back with a mystery." First, they must present their findings their peers in the scientific community before the discoveries can be declared officially.

Source: BBC News, New Species Found in Papua "Eden"