Ecology of Indonesian Papua Part One. Andrew J. Marshall
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people have done anything substantial, notably W. Takeuchi in many areas under varying sponsorship since the late 1980s, and the present writer (with G. Morren, Rutgers University) in 1992 and 1993 in the Telefomin District, this latter undertaking with particular reference to uses and local ecology among the Miyanmin—an area not otherwise sampled (Kew, Lae). In 1992, with E. Gabir, Frodin and Morren reached some Miyanmin lowland areas along the Iwa (also known as May) River (Fiak Airstrip and Hotmin—the latter ca 10 km or so south of the furthest point reached by the Behrmann expedition). There have also been a number of more targeted field undertakings, including (as already mentioned) those for palms and, as of late 2005, for orchids (E. de Vogel, pers. comm.).
Government activity has now dropped to relatively low levels. Takeuchi has indicated that since 1989 additions in the NGF/LAE institutional numbering sequence have averaged only some 400 numbers/year—well below earlier rates, particularly in the 1960s and early 1970s. This reflects significant staff cuts since the 1970s; the focus is presently on maintenance of existing resources.
The alpine flora was gathered together in an impressive series of volumes (1980–1983) by P. van Royen, following upon his 1976 expedition. This must, however, be but a starting point for further research on this fragile ecosystem; probably only at Mt Wilhelm (and Mt Jaya) has collecting reached a relatively advanced level—almost everywhere else visits have been at scattered times. The Mt Victoria complex, for example—although the first to be visited (in 1889)—has only rarely been studied since (e.g., in 1976; see above).
At lesser elevations, knowledge remains patchy. Effective inventory of any given area will come about only with repeated, relatively sustained visitc and where conditions (including local relations) are favorable, and most likely with outside or nongovernmental organization (NGO) support. A fair idea of our present knowledge may be had from the various recent conservation needs assessments (see References section, below). Formal documentation is, however, likely to remain a slow process (and to many recondite in language and style) without radically different approaches.
FAUNA OF EASTERN NEW GUINEA: TERRITORY OF PAPUA AND
NEW GUINEA (TPNG)(1946-1971); PAPUA NEW GUINEA,
INDEPENDENT FROM 1975 (SINCE 1971)
In contrast to the plant world over much of this period, there was no single government body—nor perhaps could there have been—responsible for fauna, there being many different stakeholders. As a result, a number of separate official collections came into being, some of them before re-establishment (in 1954) of the old Papuan territorial museum as the National Museum. Even afterwards the Museum’s primary focus in research was on ethnography and archeology, although gradually a zoological collection, predominately of higher vertebrates, was built up. Of agency collections, DASF (later DPI) accumulated important holdings of fish (and other aquatic organisms) as well as insects, while the Department of Forests developed a collection of forest insects at Bulolo (later moved to Lae). Collections were also built up at Wau Ecology Institute (see below) and the universities (particularly the University of Papua New Guinea). There is also a collection at the Parataxonomy Center in Madang.
Vertebrates
N. B. Blood collected birds in the highlands 1945–1947 and later (AM). Fred Shaw Mayer (see above) collected birds in the Mt Hagen area in 1946–1947 and on Mt Wilhelm in 1949. In 1948 Blood set up at Nondugl in the Wahgi Valley the bird of paradise (plus other wildlife) sanctuary partly funded by Sir Edward Hallstrom. Its management was passed in 1954 to Shaw Meyer and in 1960 to M. J. Tyler (see below), In the early 1960s it was turned over to the government and moved to suitable forested land by the Baiyer River, also in the Western Highlands. It is now a National Park, with as well some botanical significance. The first two managers at the new location were Graeme George and Roy Mackay.
Another government manager of this period, Angus Hutton (of the tea plantation at Garaina and previously resident in India), collected animals at Garaina and elsewhere in southeastern Morobe.
A contemporary of Blood and Shaw Mayer was E. Thomas Gilliard of AMNH, there an associate of A. L. Rand. Gilliard made several trips (1948–1959) to collect birds (AMNH): Astrolabe Range (1948), Wilhelm, Giluwe (1950), the Kubor Range (1952), the Victor Emanuel and Hindenburg ranges (1954), Mt Hagen and the Finisterres (1956), New Britain (1958–1959) including a climb into the remote Whiteman Range, and the Adelbert Range (1959). He also collected butterflies (AMNH), obtaining new species of Delias, and a few plants (Harvard). Gilliard was partly sponsored by the National Geographic Society of Washington DC, and wrote and photographed for National Geographic. Apart from formal papers, much of his work is summarized in his Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds (1965) which also contains useful historical material. He was in addition a co-author (with Rand) of Handbook of New Guinea Birds (1967).
The Gyldenstolpe expedition of 1951 in the Hagen/Wahgi area concentrated on birds but also collected other animals and plants. Its principals were the Swedes Nils Gyldenstolpe and his wife (Stockholm; results in Ark. Zool. 8(1), 1955). In 1954 Ellis Troughton, assisted by Norman Camps as well as by Blood, collected mammals in the Western Highlands (AM; Australian Mus. Mag. 11: 246). Blood and Camps also assisted Gilliard and Gressitt. In 1955 Rev. O. Shelly collected some frogs in the Wahgi Valley (AMNH). In 1959 Reimer collected some animals in Kikori area, Papua Gulf (München, Frankfurt).
Turning to the 1960s, the establishment of the Bishop Museum Field Station (later the Wau Ecology Institute) at Wau (1961) provided a new focus (see also Integrated Expeditions and Surveys section, above). Vertebrate research also figured in its activities, with mammals and their ectoparasites of particular interest. Collections were made by M. C. Thompson and P. Temple; R. Traub (USNM) with Abid Beg Mirza, M. Nadchatram, E. Mann, Wilson, Ziegler, R. Greene (Bishop; WEI), D. Schlitter, and S. Williams (also Carnegie). Early outside visitors included, in 1962, Alden H. Miller (birds) and W. Z. Lidicker, Jr. (mammals), focusing on the Wau-Bulolo area (MVZ).
Separately, Professor T. C. Schultze-Westrum (a nephew of L. Schultze-Jena; see above) in 1964 and 1970 studied mammals and conservation at Mt Bosavi and elsewhere for the IUCN and the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (TPNG) authorities. Also in 1964 and continuing over several visits, Jared Diamond (most recently author of Guns, Germs and Steel (1997) and Collapse (2004)) undertook his detailed surveys of birds of certain mountains, including Mt Karimui and the Torricellis, pioneering certain aspects of ecology and biogeography and at the same time making recommendations for conservation (collections mainly AMNH). In 1972 Diamond published his critical Avifauna of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea, a notable contribution to the literature.
During the CSIRO surveys (see above, Integrated Expeditions section) R. Schodde collected many birds (and some insects) as well as plants, for example, with S. Schodde at Lake Kutubu and Mt Giluwe (1961) and in Central Province (1962). W. B. Hitchcock collected birds in 1963 with botanists W. Vink and R. Pullen (CSIRO), Pullen also collecting some insects (CSIRO).
The Noona Dan expedition of 1962 (see Integrated Expeditions section, above) in its survey of the Bismarck Archipelago also collected animals, with Torben Wolff, Leif Linneborg, Finn Salomonsen, and Wm. Buch particularly interested in birds, insects, and fresh water and marine organisms (Copenhagen).
More detailed herpetological work had its advent in the 1960s. Fred Parker, a government officer, from 1960–1978 made large herpetological collections in many parts of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (MCZ, AM, etc.). Harold Cogger collected reptiles and amphibians in several areas, especially in the former Territory of Papua. Michael J. Tyler, Shaw Mayer’s successor at Nondugl, from 1960 collected many frogs and reptiles in Wahgi Valley and on the Wahgi-Sepik divide; and in 1967 he made a frog survey of New Britain (Adelaide, AM, BMNH, AMNH). Richard Zweifel in 1964, 1968, and 1969 collected many frogs in several areas in the Highlands, the Wau area, and along the north coast (AMNH). In 1969 Harold Heatwole, while on the Fairbridge New Guinea coral reef expedition, studied reptiles on some smaller islands in eastern Papua. George Zug collected reptiles and amphibians in 1971 at Mt Kaindi and elsewhere (USNM). In 1968 James Menzies joined the staff of UPNG, beginning his long association with New Guinea herpetology (as well as mammalogy and, with collaborators, in botany); after a period in Africa in the 1980s he returned, first to the National Museum, then back to UPNG (retiring in 2001).
In