Hills above Manakwari, Papua New Guinea Photograph by John Dumbacher   Northwestern portion of the island of New Guinea Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   8,500 square miles (22,000 square kilometers) -- about the size of New Hampshire Vulnerable

· Life on the Bird’s Head
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Life on the Bird’s Head

These moist montane rain forests can be found scattered in four different areas of New Guinea. The largest of these areas is the Vogelkop, or "Bird’s Head," Peninsula, for which this relatively pristine ecoregion is named. Several endemic species of birds and mammals take shelter in these mountains.

Special Features

New Guinea is an active tectonic area with a complex geologic history, which is represented by the presence of sandstone, limestone, and volcanic rocks. Although composed primarily of tropical montane evergreen forest and tropical wet evergreen forest, the ecoregion also contains montane forests filled with evergreen species. With changes in elevation, these trees yield to moss-draped southern beech trees sometimes mixed with conifers.

	The Arfak ringtail is one of the ring-tailed opossum species. The animals’ tails are often held in a tight coil, from which the term "ringtail" is derived.

Wild Side

The Arfak Mountains of this ecoregion contain 42 mammal species, including the Arfak long-beaked echidna and the Arfak ringtail. The echidna is covered in spines and has a long, sticky tongue adapted to catching insects. Other mammals that live in this ecoregion include the mouse bandicoot (a small marsupial) and two predatory marsupials: the red-bellied dasyure and the brown dorcopsis. Nine of this ecoregion’s bird species are endemic, and several are named for the peninsula on which they live, such as the Vogelkop bowerbird, Vogelkop scrubwren, Vogelkop melidectes, and Vogelkop whistler. The conservation of fruit-eating birds in particular is essential to maintaining New Guinea’s diverse evergreen forests, because these birds disperse the trees’ seeds in their droppings. The Arfak Mountains are also known for their diversity of birdwing butterflies.

Cause for Concern

Most of the habitat in this ecoregion is still intact. However, a small area in the eastern portion has been cleared, and logging is a continuing threat in the Tamarau Mountains. Population growth and agricultural development encroach on native forests as well.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.