|
 PAPUA
NEW GUINEA is the world's second largest island, exceeded in size
only by Greenland, and it is also the world's highest tropical island,
with 70% of the land still cloaked in dense tropical forests. The
central spine of the island is a complex system of mountain ranges
and upland valleys that stretch for nearly 2000 km.
Highest peaks rise to almost 5000 meters. This huge
equatorial island is a wondrous place, providing a rich variety of habitats for
its wildlife: from reef and mangrove swamps at sea level, through swamp forests
and lowland rainforests on the coastal plains and foothills, to mid-mountain
beech and pine forests, and, at the highest altitudes, stunted moss forests and
alpine grasslands.
The result is an island teeming with life, with a
greater diversity of animals and plants than almost anywhere else. Many are
strange; most are unique.
Papua New Guinea's coral reefs not only
support a huge variety of fish life, but the reef structures themselves are
also incredibly varied. Within a small area, either from land or boat, one can
explore (by diving or snorkeling) the sunlit world of a shallow patch of reef
or follow a towering wall of coral into the depths, swim in huge caves, through
narrow clefts, around palm-fringed islands, or across calm lagoons - all in a
single day!
In the Madang Lagoon, one can find over six hundred species
of nudibranchs. For almost every kind of soft coral, sponge and weed there
seems to be a nudibranch (or sea-slug) to match. The Madang Lagoon also has a
phenomenal variety of anemones with their partners, the delightful clown fish.
The nutrient rich waters teem with reef and pelagic fish.
The rolling
green canopy of tropical rainforest boasts an astounding 1200 species of trees
in the lowlands alone, 20,000 species of flowering plants which include
rhododendrons and exquisite orchids, beetles of all shapes and sizes with many
species being the most beautiful of iridescent colors, and over 6000 species
moths and butterflies including the Alexandra Bird-wing butterfly and the
Hercules moth - both the world's largest.
 Fauna in Papua New Guinea
is predominantly marsupials, and along with Australia, are the only
two countries which have representatives of all three kinds of mammals
- the primitive egg laying monotremes, the marsupials, and the placental
mammals. Primates and carnivores failed to reach New Guinea, and
instead evolved its own unique tree-dwelling marsupial mammals -
striped and feather-tailed possums, ringtails, cuscuses and tree
kangaroos.
Birds are undoubtedly the most outstanding group of
animals, not only because of their beauty but also because of their great
diversity and abundance. There are almost as many species of birds in Papua New
Guinea as there are in Mexico, the U.S.A. and Canada combined. Yet Papua New
Guinea is only about the size of California. Most famous are the magnificently
plumaged and colored birds of paradise which number 38 species, 36 of which are
endemic, the other two being shared with tropical Australia. These birds have
highly specialized forms of courtship behavior and plumage display and the
variety in plumage is certainly unique in avifauna. There are many more
remarkable and beautiful birds which rival the magnificence of the birds of
paradise such as the bower birds, emperor wrens, a variety of pigeons including
the Victoria crowned pigeon, kingfishers, lorikeets, parrots and cockatoos,
larger birds such as the hornbill, birds of prey, and the large flightless
cassowary.
Over the centuries this mountainous green island developed a
population equally as colorful and diverse as its wildlife. Papua New Guinea
has 700 languages. Reflecting the diversity of languages is a bewildering
variety of cultures from highland cultures based on imitation of Birds of
Paradise, to elaborate initation and scarification ceremonies of the
Sepik.
The "Highlanders" were probably the first agriculturalists in the
world, and developed a complex and colorful culture using the plants, flowers
and bird plumage from the rainforest to enhance their images during the
elaborate ceremonies and sing sings performed by clan groups to celebrate war,
death, fertility, etc. The people in the lowland regions were food gathers and
developed complex rituals and beliefs in ancestral spirits, and expressed these
beliefs in elaborate wood carvings.
Papua New Guinea contains a fabulous
wealth of resources - oil, natural gas, gold, copper, timber, some already
tapped, many more yet to be exploited. It is a prosperous country where begging
and starvation do not exist.
Papua New Guinea is also one of only a
handful of places on the planet where there is still an opportunity to conserve
large areas of wilderness, especially large areas of primary tropical
rainforest. The next few decades will reveal whether this exciting opportunity
is seized.
Ambua Lodge near Tari in the Southern Highlands, Karawari
Lodge and the expeditionary vessel Sepik Spirit on the Sepik River and its
tributaries, and Malolo Plantation Lodge on the north coast near Madang, have
all been carefully positioned to allow the inquisitive or specialized traveler
the benefit of the best locations to see and experience all the incredibly
diverse natural and cultural wonders this country has to offer, in the comfort
and security of four of the best facilities in Papua New Guinea.
> GENERAL CULTURAL & ECOLOGICAL
INFORMATION OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA
> MT. WILHELM
TREKS
> TREKKING
TRIPS
> MALOLO
DIVING |
