Lost Land of the Volcano : new species
Mount Bosavi crater Papua New Guinea
Aerial view the extinct volcano crater, Mount Bosavi, in Papua New Guinea
Photograph: BBC/Ulla Lohmann/BBC.
The Lost Land of the Volcano refers to an extremely remote location deep in the rainforests of the
highlands of Papua New Guinea,
where at an extinct volcano called Mount Bosavi the inaccessibility of the crater, (inaccessible that is even to local
wildlife!), has allowed a somewhat distinct eco-system to
exist for many tens of thousands of years.
A team from the BBC, London Zoo, the Smithsonian Institution and Oxford University spent some two weeks
there in January, 2009, after months of pre-planning
and, with the aid of local trackers, accessed the - lost world - of the Mount Bosavi volcano crater.
The preparations for this expedition included negotiations, through translators,
with local indigenous peoples, the pre-planting of food crops to support the 25 person strong
research team over their stay of several weeks, and a helicopter
landing some 15 miles (or four days trek) at the nearest convenient indigenous village to Mount Bosavi crater.
The volcano is believed to have been dormant for some 200,000 years and its crater now features a rainforest that
has been colonised from time to time by species which have been able to evolve in relative isolation due
to the inaccessiblity of the crater.
The team believe they have so far discovered some forty new species although these have
been sourced both in the
Mount Bosavi crater itself and also in the mountainous rainforested country surrounding Mount Bosavi.
These species new to science
including a giant rat,
16 species of frog, one species of gecko, three species of fish, one species of bat and some twenty species of insects
and spiders.
The giant rat species, named the Bosavi Woolly Rat, is thought to be from the largest-growing species yet known, one of
the new species of frog seems to be a
fanged frog, the gecko bears uniquely interesting camoflage colouration and one of the fish makes grunting noises
with its swin bladder.
In the long continued evolutionary remoteness of Mount Bosavi extinct volcano crater the resulting
lost world was not populated by any apes or monkeys (as is the case in Papua New Guinea generally) or any cats or dogs and the
top predator seems to have been a species of giant monitor lizard.
Quite possibly due to the fact that it was unused to seeing humans as a danger an individual of a
previously known species, Doria's tree kangaroo - known to be extremely shy elsewhere - actually wandered quite
close to the team when they were exploring Mount Bosavi crater and seemed to be more confused
than anything else by their presence.
A giant rat, a hairy caterpillar
and some lichen with legs
The finding of new species of mammal is generally regarded as more remarkable among biologists than
the finding of new species of bird, fish or insect. It would seem that a giant rat species will
prove to be the poster boy of the Mount Bosavi new species discoveries.
BBC Wildlife
cameraman Gordon Buchanan with the giant Bosavi Woolly Rat. This oversized
- but probably largely vegetarian - giant rat measures almost 3 feet long (or 82 centimetres) long
weighing in at more than three pounds (or 1.5kg.).
Photograph: BBC/Jonny Keeling.
The giant rat was untroubled by the presence of humans seeming to have no in-built sense
of danger where people are concerned.
Hairy Caterpillar - Photograph Ulla Lomann / BBC
Spider with lichen camoflage - Photograph Ulla Lomann / BBC
The Papua New Guinea rainforest is currently being lost to commerce and agriculture at the rate of
some 3.5% a year. There are extensive commercial logging operations going on at present some twenty miles
(or thirty two kilometres) to the south of
Mount Bosavi's extinct crater - this pristine Lost Land of the Volcano - and the team have expressed concern about
the preservation of the unique, and uniquely important, eco-sysytem they have discovered.
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