动物 印尼原始森林发现新物种(组图)

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http://www.sina.com.cn 2007年12月19日02:14 海峡都市报


新发现的侏袋貂



新发现的一只重1.4公斤的巨鼠，其个头有城市里普通老鼠的5倍大


　　中国日报特稿

　　非营利性组织“保护国际”17日宣布，科学家在印度尼西亚的巴布亚福贾山区发现了新物种：巨鼠和已知个头最小的有袋类哺乳动物。

　　新发现的巨鼠和有袋类动物，在分类学上分别被归入卷毛鼠属和侏袋貂属。据英国《每日电讯报》17日报道，这两种动物是在福贾山区的一个原始森林中被发现的，该地被称作生态学中“失落的世界”。

　　一位参加考察的科学家表示：“巨鼠的个头有城市里普通老鼠的5倍大，它对人类没有恐惧感，经常明目张胆地在帐篷中来回穿梭。”

　　相比之下，侏袋貂就显得害羞许多。新发现的侏袋貂是世界最小的有袋类动物之一。

　　今年6月份，来自印尼科学院和一个名为“保护国际”的生物多样性保护组织的科学家们深入印尼巴布亚地区东部的福贾山区，展开此次科学考察活动。

　　在这次科考中，科学家们还第一次拍摄到了几种鲜为人知的鸟类交配的录像画面。此外他们还发现了一种于19世纪就已绝迹的鸟类。

　　科学家们计划在2008年年底或者2009年再重回该地区“寻宝”，期待发现更多的蛙类、蝴蝶及哺乳动物的新物种。

　　印尼巴布亚地区拥有4200万公顷热带雨林，是世界上生物多样性最丰富的地区之一。2005年时，也曾有一支科学考察队探索过这片热带雨林，发现了许多植物及昆虫的新品种。

　　印尼政府已经宣布该地区为“国家野生生物圣地”，不过目前的形势不容乐观，因为周边地区正在遭受大规模乱砍滥伐的威胁。

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http://news.nationalgeographic.c ... pictures/index.html


December 17, 2007—Mammal expert Martua Sinaga holds a 3-pound (1.4-kilogram) rat that may be a species new to science. The rat was found in the remote Foja Mountains of western New Guinea, Indonesia, on a June 2007 expedition, experts announced yesterday.

Researchers from Conservation International and the Indonesia Institute of Science had previously discovered several new species of plants and animals during a trip to the pristine rain forest region in 2005.

When the team returned to the Fojas this summer, they found the rat along with a pygmy possum that could also be a previously unrecorded species.

"The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical city rat," Kristofer Helgen, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., said in a press statement. "With no fear of humans, it apparently came into the camp several times during the trip."

  




A pygmy possum of the genus Cercartetus was found this June in Indonesia's pristine Foja Mountains and could be a species new to science.

Experts with Conservation International described the mini-mammal as one of the world's smallest marsupials.

A previous expedition to the Fojas in 2005 had revealed for the first time that a rare forest marsupial, the golden-mantled tree kangaroo, made its home in the same remote region on the island of New Guinea. The kangaroo was among dozens of species of plants and animals discovered during that trip.

  

An ornate fruit-dove was among several exotic birds observed high in the Foja Mountains of western New Guinea, Indonesia, in June 2007.

A team that included National Geographic photographer Tim Laman and a film crew from CBS News recently accompanied U.S. and Indonesian scientists on an expedition into the remote mountain range.

The team captured some of the first film footage of the birds from the Fojas' interior, an untracked 740,000-acre (300,000-hectare) region that has remained relatively untouched by humans.

  

male golden-fronted bowerbird holds a bright blue berry in its beak as part of a courtship ritual—just one of the unusual birds seen on the Indonesian island of New Guinea during a June 2007 expedition.

Bowerbirds are best known for attracting females by building towers of twigs and other forest materials, with some species depositing a variety of "gifts" inside. The rare Foja bird's mating moves were first photographed in 2006.

The June trip, led by Conservation International, captured on tape the bird's full courtship display for the first time.

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The wattled smoky honeyeater, a species found only in the Foja Mountains of Indonesia, was officially named as a new species after an expedition to the remote region in June 2007.

Experts with Conservation International had first discovered the bird, along with dozens of other unusual species, on a 2005 trip to the Fojas.

"It's comforting to know that there is a place on Earth so isolated that it remains the absolute realm of wild nature," said expedition leader and CI vice president Bruce Beehler in a press statement.

"We were pleased to see that this little piece of Eden remains as pristine and enchanting as it was when we first visited."