Welcome One, Welcome All!
I woke up yesterday to the most exciting and refreshing news: A team of scientists from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea have found more than 40 new species of animal in the almost inaccessible 1000m deep crater of extinct volcano of Mount Bosavi in Papua New Guinea. In an international expedition led by Dr George McGavin from Oxford University’s Museum of Natural History and filmed by the BBC for an upcoming natural history documentary scientists have explored a pristine jungle habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the volcano last erupted 200,000 years ago.
Among the astonishing creatures they have come across are an enormous 82cm rat – the Bosavi woolly rat is potentially the largest true rat (yep, like our city sewer pals) in the world – that cameraman Gordon Buchanon described as “like a little puppy”!
and the delightfully named Bosavi Silky Cuscus – a tree-dwelling marsupial that resembles a tiny bear
as well as hairy caterpillars, fanged frogs, and fish that grunt using their swim bladders!
You can read more here, and see a couple of nice viddys of Gordon and Woolly Rat here.
It can be easy to focus on the peril/destruction of the world we know about – and all too easy in our fabulous age of satellites, global community and google earth to imagine that all the world is known, so I’m thankful for this reminder of the spectacular richness of our improbable pale blue dot.
There’s really a world full of wonder out there – and we’re lucky enough to live in it!
Have a wonder-full week, SuperForest
Patricia
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