New Guinea’s lowland rainforests
New Guinea is one of the most important centres of biodiversity on Earth. In terms of species richness, this island can compare to Australia, even though it is ten times smaller! It is home to 15,000 species of flowering plants, possibly up to 300,000 insect species and more than 700 bird species.
Photo: Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo
Most of New Guinea is covered by lowland rainforest. It is interwoven with a network of large rivers with a number of cutoffs, in the immediate vicinity of which the landscape turns into a freshwater swamp. The trees that grow here often have stilt or buttress roots, which increase their stability, or aerating roots, which ensure a sufficient supply of water and nutrients.
New Guinea’s rainforests are among the world’s largest and the region’s best preserved. They are surpassed only by the South American Amazonia and the Congo Basin in Central Africa. New Guinea stands out from the surrounding islands by its high proportion of species not found anywhere else in the world. Nearly half of the plants are endemic; the same goes for the birds.
New Guinea is the centre of diversity for birds of paradise. Most of the 40+ known species live here and have become the national symbol of Papua New Guinea. One iconic inhabitant of the lowland rainforests is the Palm Cockatoo – the world’s largest cockatoo, and, together with humans, probably the only species that makes musical instruments. Other species worth mentioning are bowerbirds, which build decorative bowers, or the crowned-pigeons – the biggest in the world.
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