'Lost World' discovered

Ronnie Whelan · February 7, 2006

Scientists have discovered an incredible 'Lost World' deep in an isolated jungle in Indonesia.

Thousands of hitherto undiscovered species of flora and fauna were found by the stunned group.

They included large mammals hunted to extinction elsewhere and a wealth of birds, plants, butterflies and flowers.

The research team was amazed to discover that the animals, having never seen humans before, were unafraid of their new visitors.

The scientists were able to pick up two Long-Beaked Echidnas, a primitive egg-laying mammal, and take them back to their camp to be studied.

The so-called Garden of Eden was discovered in the remote Foja Mountains. Scientists had to fly by helicopter to get there. They touched down to find two million acres of unspoilt jungle.

Bruce Beehler, of the US-based environmental organisation Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said: "There was not a single trail, no sign of civilization, no sign of even local communities ever having been there."

The scientists said they discovered 20 frog species - including a tiny microhylid frog less than 14 millimetres long - four new butterfly species, and at least five new types of palms.

One of the most remarkable discoveries was the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo, an arboreal jungle-dweller thought to have been hunted to near extinction, and a new honeyeater bird, which has a bright orange face-patch with a pendant wattle under each eye.

The scientists also took the first known photographs of Berlepsch's Six-Wired Bird of Paradise, described by hunters in New Guinea in the 19th century.

$ky.

Sir Tokyo Sexwale · February 7, 2006

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