Indonesia: The Real Lost World

Just when you think the world has run out of places to explore, a story like this comes along. Apparently Indonesia is the best place in the modern world to find new creatures (and some extinct ones). In 1998, the second species of living coelacanth was discovered in the waters around the island of Sulawesi; whereas the African coelacanth is blue, this one is brown. In 2004, the bones of a race of people only three feet tall were found on the island of Flores – homo floresiensis (real-life hobbits!). Now in 2005 and again this year, expeditions to northwestern New Guinea (the Indonesian-ruled part of the island, not Papua New Guinea) have discovered several new species of birds and mammals. The latest reports talks about finding a giant rat the size of a small cat (here kitty kitty!), and the world’s smallest possum.

Giant rat and new possum found in Indonesia

My, oh my. I think all this biodiversity comes from the fact that a nation of islands will have plenty of ecological niches. Also, most of Indonesia, except for Java, was sparsely populated before the 1800s, when the Dutch took over the archipelago. It makes you wonder what critters will be found next, doesn’t it? Now about King Kong’s island . . .