Earth's ecological haven
After the spectacular discoveries in Madagascar, it is now the turn of New Guinea to display some of the magnificent arrays of new species of floras and faunas that the world has ever known. According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF), from the years between 1998 and 2008, at the rate of twice a week, more than 1000 new species were discovered by the researchers of the reputed nature conservation organization. Published, very recently, in a report titled, "Final Frontier: Newly Discovered Species of New Guinea", WWF, as part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, proudly stated that New Guinea's forests and rivers are among the richest and most bio-diverse in the whole world. In this decade long study, a total of 1060 species of new life-forms were discovered and amongst them include 218 new plants (one of them is a flesh-like a orchid), 43 reptiles, 12 mammals, 580 invertebrates, 134 amphibians, 2 birds and 71 species of fish.
But what is exactly so special about New Guinea? New Guinea, (and Melanesian island of New Guinea was the concentrated area of the study), is the 2nd largest island on Earth, after Greenland and is divided between Indonesia in the West and Papua New Guinea to the East. This locale is believed to house the planet's one of the least-spoilt and most stunning ecosystems. It was already known among the conservationists regarding the breathtaking nature of New Guinea as its rainforests are the 3rd biggest in the world, right after the Amazon and the Congo. This place is also known as the "coral triangle", a region with the most diverse marine eco-systems on Earth. Besides, it is understood that even though the island covers just about 0.5% of Earth's entire landmass, however, according to WWF, with its extensive forestry, water and wetlands, New Guinea contains up to 8% of the world's total number of species! So there is no wonder that this ecological haven will display such magnificent collection of new stellar species in this recent research endeavor of the WWF.
Some of the standouts of this discovery include a large green tree-dwelling frog named Litoria dux, a round-headed and snub-finned dolphin, Orcaella Heinsohni, (which sure was the highlight of the entire study), a blue-eyed spotted cuscus (a species of Australasian possum) called Spilocuscus Wilsoni, another frog dubbed Litoria sauroni which owes its naming because of its striking red and black spotted eyes that resembled, according to the discoverers, the evil character Sauron from J. R. Tolkien's epic novel "Lord of the Rings". Other notable findings include, a one centimeter long and vampire-like fanged frog, a new bird species, the wattled smoky honeyeater, 9 new vibrantly colorful snail species, a brightly colored apricot crayfish, a monitor lizard, Varanus Macraei, a 2.5 meter-long river shark, Glyphis garricki, and a 12-14 centimeters long snake that had scales over its eyes, which clearly made it a blind and venom less of its kind. Researchers also believe that 1sq. Km (247 acres) of the island's lowland rainforest might as well contain around 150 new species of birds. Amongst the 33 new fish species that have been found in the waters around the island, the most notable ones includes the damselfish, a strikingly brilliant blue wrasse (a type of marine fish) and seven species of zig-zag rainbow fish, an 11cm-long creature that lives in shallow waters.
But unfortunately it's not all good news. Just like Amazon and Borneo rainforests, the natural habitat of New Guinea is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Some of the growing threats for such are illegal and unsustainable logging, forest conversion for palm oil plantations, mining, road construction and unsustainable fishing. Even though the island has relatively low level of human population however it has been estimated that illegal logging will likely to strip the island from half of its forest cover by the year 2020.
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