Experts
Vice President, Melanesia Center for Biodiversity Conservation
Conservation International
Bruce Beehler recently returned from a Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) expedition in the Foja Mountains in western New Guinea. The trip produced, among other amazing things, the first new bird discovery for the island in over 60 years. Bruce’s December expedition was, in his words, “way beyond expectations.”
Bruce became interested in nature, and birds in particular, as a small boy. He remembers the first time he saw a red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), in 1958, as an early moment of inspiration. Bruce went on to write his undergraduate honors thesis on birds at Williams College and earned his Master’s and PhD at Princeton, writing his dissertation on four bird of paradise species in New Guinea. Over the course of his career, he has worked with numerous different scientific organizations, and has been with CI for seven years.
While on this trip of a lifetime, Bruce’s team identified a previously undescribed species of honeyeater; amazingly, it was virtually the first bird they encountered upon entering the Foja Mountains. On their second day in the jungle, two “lost” birds of paradise (Parotia berlepschi) appeared in camp, the male dancing and displaying spectacularly for the female. “I was too spellbound to go get my camera,” says Bruce. “It would have been a stunning series of photographs.” The group did manage, however, to capture the first known photographs of the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons) displaying in front of its bower.
Bruce and his comrades traveled though areas of old growth tropical forest never visited by humans. “The larger, edible game mammals, which are typically rare or absent in most forests, were common and in some cases quite unwary. We found the long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii), a bizarre egg-laying mammal, and all we had to do was pick them up and carry them into camp to be studied.” Bruce has been working in New Guinea for 35 years, but this sighting was a first.
While the RAP team enjoyed a good amount of luck on its three-week expedition, the rainy conditions in the forest made life in the mountains challenging. “The camp itself became a horrible festering bog of mud and muck…. The only time we felt even close to clean was when we were asleep in our sleeping bags.” But being in the jungle, a place filled with wildlife and pristine beauty, was paradise. “I have never been to a place like this.”
Bruce became interested in nature, and birds in particular, as a small boy. He remembers the first time he saw a red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), in 1958, as an early moment of inspiration. Bruce went on to write his undergraduate honors thesis on birds at Williams College and earned his Master’s and PhD at Princeton, writing his dissertation on four bird of paradise species in New Guinea. Over the course of his career, he has worked with numerous different scientific organizations, and has been with CI for seven years.
While on this trip of a lifetime, Bruce’s team identified a previously undescribed species of honeyeater; amazingly, it was virtually the first bird they encountered upon entering the Foja Mountains. On their second day in the jungle, two “lost” birds of paradise (Parotia berlepschi) appeared in camp, the male dancing and displaying spectacularly for the female. “I was too spellbound to go get my camera,” says Bruce. “It would have been a stunning series of photographs.” The group did manage, however, to capture the first known photographs of the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons) displaying in front of its bower.
Bruce and his comrades traveled though areas of old growth tropical forest never visited by humans. “The larger, edible game mammals, which are typically rare or absent in most forests, were common and in some cases quite unwary. We found the long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii), a bizarre egg-laying mammal, and all we had to do was pick them up and carry them into camp to be studied.” Bruce has been working in New Guinea for 35 years, but this sighting was a first.
While the RAP team enjoyed a good amount of luck on its three-week expedition, the rainy conditions in the forest made life in the mountains challenging. “The camp itself became a horrible festering bog of mud and muck…. The only time we felt even close to clean was when we were asleep in our sleeping bags.” But being in the jungle, a place filled with wildlife and pristine beauty, was paradise. “I have never been to a place like this.”