New Species Discovered in Indonesia Jungle

yes, in the next few years they will discover a new mouse there....Mickey.

Re: New Species Discovered in Indonesia Jungle


If I weren't such a humorless conservative, I could work with the word "logs".

I think you just dropped one on bobs thread Rog...

Well, at least it didn't leave me as the final poster - thread killer.

Ooops!

(scratching his head) If they see the problem and it's logs why don't they just plant more trees?

Amazing that places like this still exist.

From the (London, UK) Evening Standard, February 5, 2006, West End Final Edition:

Thanks for the thread, BSH--they've been reporting this on the CBC today--fascinatin' stuff . . .

Hi Setanta:

It's already amazing. The mind boggles when you realize they've only scratched the surface. Here's hoping they have sense enough to limit exploration to ensure that conditions remains stable for this unique environment.

Bob

Amazing stuff. I wonder how many of these little isolated pockets there are left in the world.

Isn'that close to the area where they found several species of birds with poisonous feathers about eight years ago ?

I believe it's New Guinea you're thinking about.




MAUREEN ROUHI

Unusual toxic alkaloids belonging to the family of batrachotoxins--previously known only in poison-dart frogs and birds of the genus Pitohui--have been found in a second bird species of a different genus. The finding suggests that chemical defenses among birds might be more widespread than previously thought and raises questions about the origin and ecological roles of the batrachotoxins.

The discovery of the alkaloids in Ifrita kowaldi birds was reported by John P. Dumbacher, a researcher at the National Zoological Park, Washington, D.C., and chemists John W. Daly and Thomas F. Spande of the National Institutes of Health (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., Early Edition, Oct. 17).

Dumbacher's involvement in the research dates back to 1989, when he was a graduate student studying the courtship and mating behavior of a species of birds in New Guinea. He sometimes found other kinds of birds trapped in his nets. Those of the genus Pitohui were nasty.

The first time Dumbacher took a Pitohui out of a net, the bird scratched his fingers. "My fingers started to burn," he recalls. "And if you put your finger in your mouth after handling a Pitohui, your mouth begins to tingle. It's a lot like tasting hot chili peppers or touching a 9-volt battery." He says the natives of New Guinea knew the birds were poisonous, calling them trash birds because they are useless as food.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/critter/birds.html

So, let's go

Yes that's it thanks.

Garden of Eden...
A neat story.

It struck me that way too. There are so many stories of species disappearing that one stating new life found is a refreshing difference.