Fauna of New Guinea
Encyclopedia
Mammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s, reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
s, bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
, invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s and amphibian
Amphibian
Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods...
s.
As the world’s largest and highest tropical island, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
occupies less than 0.5% of world's land surface, yet supports a high percentage of global biodiversity. Approximately 4,642 vertebrate species inhabit the island of New Guinea and its surrounding waters, which constitutes about 8% of the recognized world vertebrates. This ranges from an estimated 4% of the world's lizards and mammals, to about 10% of the world's fish species.
The numbers of global and New Guinea invertebrate species are poorly known, and thus an accurate comparison is difficult. Butterflies are the best known invertebrate group, and are represented in New Guinea by about 735 species, which is about 4.2% of the world total of 17,500 species.
Origin
New GuineaNew Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
is a large island located north of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and south-east of Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. It is part of the Australian Plate, known as Sahul, and once formed part of the super-continent Gondwana
Gondwana
In paleogeography, Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland, was the southernmost of two supercontinents that later became parts of the Pangaea supercontinent. It existed from approximately 510 to 180 million years ago . Gondwana is believed to have sutured between ca. 570 and 510 Mya,...
. The origin of most New Guinea fauna is closely linked to Australia. Gondwana began to break up 140 million years ago, and Sahul separated from Antarctica 50 million years ago. As it drifted
Continental drift
Continental drift is the movement of the Earth's continents relative to each other. The hypothesis that continents 'drift' was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and was fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912...
north, New Guinea moved into the tropics
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
.
Throughout New Guinea's geological history there have been many land connections with Australia. These have occurred during glaciations in various ice ages. Four occurred during the Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
; the last of which was severed 10,000 years ago. At this time, a number species existed on both land masses, and many plants and animals thus crossed from Australia to New Guinea and vice versa. Many later became isolated as the connection ended, then further evolving to the new environment and becoming distinct species.
However, this Australia-New Guinea mixing occurred among a relatively few faunal groups; some New Guinea species have an Asian origin. As New Guinea drifted north, it collided with the Pacific Plate
Pacific Plate
The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At 103 million square kilometres, it is the largest tectonic plate....
as well as a number of oceanic islands. Although no land connection with Asia was ever formed, the proximity between the landmasses, via the many small islands of the Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n archipelago, allowed some Asian species to migrate to New Guinea. This has resulted in a unique mixture of Australian and Asian species, seen nowhere else in the world. A large percentage of New Guinea's species are endemic
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
to the island.
History of study
Influential evolutionary biologist Ernst MayrErnst Mayr
Ernst Walter Mayr was one of the 20th century's leading evolutionary biologists. He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, historian of science, and naturalist...
came to New Guinea in 1928 to make collections for the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
and banker and naturalist Walter Rothschild
Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild
Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild FRS , a scion of the Rothschild family, was a British banker, politician, and zoologist.-Biography:...
. Mayr collected several thousands bird skins (he named 26 new bird species during his lifetime) and, in the process also named 38 new orchid species. He determined that New Guinea's rarest birds of paradise were, in fact, hybrid species. During his stay in New Guinea, he was invited to accompany the Whitney South Seas Expedition
Whitney South Seas Expedition
The Whitney South Seas Expedition to collect bird specimens for the American Museum of Natural History , under the initial leadership of Rollo Beck, was instigated by Dr Leonard C. Sanford and financed by Harry Payne Whitney, a thoroughbred horse-breeder and philanthropist.Beck, an expert bird...
to the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
. Mayr's experience of the fauna of New Guinea informed many of his conclusions about evolution for the rest of his life.
Mammals
Monotreme
Monotremes are mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young like marsupials and placental mammals...
s, placentals and marsupial
Marsupial
Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...
s. New Guinea contains the largest number of monotreme species of any land mass, with only one species absent: the Platypus
Platypus
The platypus is a semi-aquatic mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young...
(Ornithorhynchus anatinus). The marsupial fauna of New Guinea is diverse, consisting of the three orders: Dasyuromorphia
Dasyuromorphia
The order Dasyuromorphia comprises most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the recently extinct thylacine...
, Peramelemorphia
Peramelemorphia
The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies: it equates approximately to the mainstream of marsupial omnivores...
and Diprotodontia
Diprotodontia
Diprotodontia is a large order of about 120 marsupial mammals including the kangaroos, wallabies, possums, koala, wombats, and many others. Extinct diprotodonts include the rhinoceros-sized Diprotodon, and Thylacoleo, the so-called "marsupial lion"....
.
The native placental mammals are solely represented by the rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s and bat
Bat
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera "hand" and pteron "wing") whose forelimbs form webbed wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums, and colugos, glide rather than fly,...
s. There are approximately the same number of placental species as maruspials and monotremes.
Monotremes and marsupials
New Guinea's monotremes are restricted to the family Tachyglossidae, also known as echidnas. There are four species of echidnas in two genera: the Short-beaked EchidnaShort-beaked Echidna
The short-beaked echidna , also known as the spiny anteater because of its diet of ants and termites, is one of four living species of echidna and the only member of the genus Tachyglossus...
(Tachyglossus aculeatus), the Eastern Long-beaked Echidna
Eastern Long-beaked Echidna
The eastern long-beaked echidna , also known as Barton's long-beaked echidna, is one of three species from the genus Zaglossus to occur in New Guinea...
(Zaglossus bartoni), the Western Long-beaked Echidna
Western Long-beaked Echidna
The western long-beaked echidna is one of the four extant echidnas and one of three species of Zaglossus that occur in New Guinea. As Tachyglossus bruijni, this is the type species of Zaglossus....
(Zaglossus bruijni) and Sir David's Long-beaked Echidna
Sir David's Long-beaked Echidna
Sir David's long-beaked echidna , also known as Attenborough's long-beaked echidna or the Cyclops long-beaked echidna, is one of three species from the genus Zaglossus to occur in New Guinea. It is named in honour of Sir David Attenborough, the eminent naturalist...
(Zaglossus attenboroughi). The genus Zaglossus is endemic to New Guinea, though fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s have been found in Australia.
The native mammal fauna of New Guinea lacks large predators. The carnivorous marsupials, Dasyuromorphia
Dasyuromorphia
The order Dasyuromorphia comprises most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the recently extinct thylacine...
, of New Guinea are all small in comparison to Australian species, and most are insectivorous. The largest is the Bronze Quoll
Bronze Quoll
The Bronze Quoll is a species of quoll found only in the Trans Fly savanna and grasslands of New Guinea. It was discovered in the early 1970s when five specimens were collected, but only described in 1987 when Dr...
(Dasyurus spartacus), a rare quoll
Quoll
The quoll, or native cat, is a carnivorous marsupial native to mainland Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. It is primarily nocturnal and spends most of the day in its den. There are six species of quoll; four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea...
, first discovered in southern New Guinea in 1979. It reaches a snout to vent length of 36 centimetres (14.2 in). Fossils of larger marsupials have been found, including the carnivorous Thylacine
Thylacine
The thylacine or ,also ;binomial name: Thylacinus cynocephalus, Greek for "dog-headed pouched one") was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian wolf...
(Thylacinus sp.), however evidence of carnivorous megafauna
Megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are "giant", "very large" or "large" animals. The most common thresholds used are or...
, such as the marsupial lion
Marsupial lion
Thylacoleo is an extinct genus of carnivorous marsupials that lived in Australia from the late Pliocene to the late Pleistocene...
(Thylacoleo), has not been found.
The kangaroo
Kangaroo
A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
s, Macropodidae, of New Guinea are very varied in their ecology and behaviour. Those closely related to the Australian kangaroos, such as the Agile Wallaby
Agile Wallaby
The Agile Wallaby , also known as the Sandy Wallaby, is a species of wallaby found in northern Australia and New Guinea. It is the most common wallaby in Australia's north....
(Macropus agilis), inhabit the open grasslands of New Guinea. However, the tree-kangaroo
Tree-kangaroo
Tree-kangaroos are macropods adapted for life in trees. They are found in the rainforests of New Guinea, far northeastern Queensland, and nearby islands. Although most are found in mountainous areas, several species also occur in lowlands, such as the aptly named Lowlands Tree-kangaroo...
s, which are mostly endemic to New Guinea, are different in appearance and behaviour. As suggested by their name, they are arboreal. They have a long, thick tail which enable them to balance in trees, and large, strong forearms for gripping to trees. Two species of tree kangaroos are also found in Australia, they are believed to have migrated from New Guinea during the Pleistocene.
The cuscus, family Phalangeridae, are a family of marsupials closely related to the possum
Possum
A possum is any of about 70 small to medium-sized arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi .Possums are quadrupedal diprotodont marsupials with long tails...
s of Australia. The cuscus have evolved in New Guinea, and are found throughout the island. Most species are dark brown or black, however two species, the Common Spotted Cuscus
Common Spotted Cuscus
The Common Spotted Cuscus is a cuscus, a marsupial that lives in the Cape York region of Australia, New Guinea, and nearby smaller islands.- Description :...
(Spilocuscus maculatus) and Black Spotted Cuscus (Spilocuscus rufoniger), are black, orange and yellow.
Many small, herbivorous possum species are native to New Guinea. These include the families: Acrobatidae
Acrobatidae
Acrobatidae is a small family of gliding marsupials containing two genera, each with a single species, the Feathertail Glider from Australia and Feather-tailed Possum from New Guinea....
, Burramyidae, Petauridae
Petauridae
The family Petauridae includes 11 medium-sized possum species: four striped possums, the six species wrist-winged gliders in genus Petaurus, and Leadbeater's Possum which has only vestigal gliding membranes...
and Pseudocheiridae
Pseudocheiridae
Pseudocheiridae is a family of arboreal marsupials containing 17 extant species of ringtailed possums and close relatives. They are found in forested areas and shrublands throughout Australia and New Guinea.-Characteristics:...
. The Sugar Glider
Sugar Glider
The sugar glider is a small gliding possum originating from the marsupial family.The sugar glider is native to eastern and northern mainland Australia and is also native to New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago.- Habitat :Sugar gliders can be found all throughout the northern and eastern parts of...
(Petaurus breviceps) is one of only two New Guinea possums that are able to glide. It has large flaps of skin between its legs, which it spreads whilst in the air. Three sub-species are found in New Guinea, and they inhabit the entire island.
Placental mammals
The rodents are solely represented by the family MuridaeMuridae
Muridae is the largest family of mammals. It contains over 600 species found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. They have been introduced worldwide. The group includes true mice and rats, gerbils, and relatives....
, and within this family, 29 genera are native to New Guinea. They are believed to have migrated to New Guinea during two different periods. The first group, called the "Old Endemics" form part of an ancient clade including other "Old Endemics" from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and has likely migrated to New Guinea during the Late Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...
or Early Pliocene. The second group include a number of species of the genus Rattus. These are believed to have moved to New Guinea later. Most New Guinea species form a monophyletic group with some Moluccan species, which is most closely related to the Australian group (one species of which also occurs on New Guinea) and to the R. xanthurus group of Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
.
The Old Endemics have undergone an impressive adaptive radiation
Adaptive radiation
In evolutionary biology, adaptive radiation is the evolution of ecological and phenotypic diversity within a rapidly multiplying lineage. Starting with a recent single ancestor, this process results in the speciation and phenotypic adaptation of an array of species exhibiting different...
, which produced such distinctive forms as the small, shrew-like Pseudohydromys
Pseudohydromys
Pseudohydromys is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae.It contains the following species:* Bishop moss-mouse * Huon small-toothed moss-mouse...
, the amphibious Hydromys
Hydromys
Hydromys is a genus of rodents in the subfamily Murinae.- List of species :Genus Hydromys - water rats*Rakali, Hydromys chrysogaster E...
, tree mice of the genus Chiruromys
Chiruromys
Chiruromys is a genus of Old World mouse that is restricted to New Guinea and the nearby islands of Goodenough, Fergusson, and Normanby.-Characteristics:...
, and several genera of giant rats, of which Mallomys
Mallomys
Mallomys is a genus of rodent in the family Muridae. The name of the genus derives from the Greek μαλλός, mallós, wool, and μῦς, mȳs, mouse/rat. These very large rats weigh between and are native to highlands in New Guinea...
is the largest. This genus contains the largest rat found in New Guinea, the Grey Black-eared Giant Rat (Mallomys aroaensis); males can reach a length of 41 centimetres (16.1 in) from snout to vent.
The bats of New Guinea are a very diverse group, comprising 6 families, and 29 genera. The six families are: Pteropodidae, Emballonuridae, Hipposideridae, Rhinolophidae, Vespertilionidae and Molossidae. Bats migrated to New Guinea on many different occasions, with many species being shared with Australia, the Sunda Islands and even mainland Asia. The megabat
Megabat
Megabats constitute the suborder Megachiroptera, family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera . They are also called fruit bats, old world fruit bats, or flying foxes.-Description:...
s, or Megachiropterans, of New Guinea are highly adapted, and many are endemic to New Guinea and surrounding islands. While most megabats are herbivorous, and eat fruit, nectar and flowers, some species within New Guinea have adapted to also eat insects whilst in flight; an ecological niche
Ecological niche
In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food...
usually filled by microbat
Microbat
The microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera . They are most often referred to by their scientific name...
s. Some species also forage on the ground, an adaptation not seen in areas with large predators.
The microbats, or Microchiroptera, show much less endemism than the megabats. Only one genus and a few species are endemic to New Guinea and surrounding islands; this suggests a much later migration to New Guinea.
The colonisation of New Guinea by Human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
s (Homo sapiens) occurred at least 40,000 years ago. Since their original colonisation, many mammals have been introduced both by accident, and on purpose. The Wild Boar
Boar
Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...
(Sus scrofa) was introduced to New Guinea at least 6,000 years ago, though may have been introduced 12,000 years ago. It is abundant throughout the island, and more common in areas where humans grow sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
as their primary food source. The Wild Boar is a large forager, and disturbs the forest floor whilst looking for food. This disturbance may have an effect on the native flora and fauna.
The Domestic Dog (Canis familiaris) was introduced to New Guinea about 2,000 years ago. There is also an endemic wild dog, the New Guinea Singing Dog
New Guinea Singing Dog
The New Guinea Singing Dog is a wild dog once found throughout New Guinea. New Guinea Singing Dogs are named for their unique howl....
, Canis lupus hallstromi, that is closely related to the Australian Dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
. It arrived on the island at least 6,000 years ago. Its common name comes from the way these dogs harmonize during chorus howls. The NGSDs live in the remote mountains, above human habitation level, and are the largest land predator.
Many murid species have been introduced to New Guinea. These include: the Polynesian Rat
Polynesian Rat
The Polynesian Rat, or Pacific Rat , known to the Māori as kiore, is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the Brown Rat and Black Rat. The Polynesian Rat originates in Southeast Asia but, like its cousins, has become well travelled – infiltrating Fiji and most Polynesian...
(Rattus exulans), the Himalayan Field Rat
Himalayan Field Rat
The Himalayan Field Rat is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.It is found in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Sumatra, Palau, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.-References:...
(Rattus nitidus), the Black Rat
Black Rat
The black rat is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus in the subfamily Murinae . The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.-Taxonomy:The black rat was...
(Rattus rattus), the Rice Field Rat (Rattus argentiventer), the Brown Rat
Brown Rat
The brown rat, common rat, sewer rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Brown Norway rat, Norwegian rat, or wharf rat is one of the best known and most common rats....
(Rattus norvegicus) and the House Mouse
House mouse
The house mouse is a small rodent, a mouse, one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus.As a wild animal the house mouse mainly lives associated with humans, causing damage to crops and stored food....
(Mus musculus). Most of these have not caused much damage, and most have only established in human settlements. R. nitidus and R. argentiventer have very limited distributions on the island. The House Mouse is the most widespread of the introduced murids, and is found in settlements and grassland. It is the only introduced murid to reach the central region of Telefomin
Telefomin
Telefomin is a station town on the border of Sandaun and Western Provinces in Papua New Guinea. The town started during the Second World War after Mick Leahy was assigned to engineer an air-strip in 1944 for the United States for use against the Imperial Japanese Army forces based in New Guinea.The...
.
Three species of deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
have been introduced to New Guinea. The Rusa Deer
Rusa Deer
The Javan Rusa or Sunda Sambar is a deer native to the islands of Java, Bali and Timor in Indonesia...
(Cervus timorensis) is the most common, and well established. It is found throughout the north and south of New Guinea. It is commonly hunted for meat by humans. The other two species, the Chital
Chital
The chital or cheetal , also known as chital deer, spotted deer or axis deer is a deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and in small numbers in Pakistan...
(Axis axis) and the Fallow Deer
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
(Dama dama) are much rarer, and the Fallow Deer may be extinct.
The Cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
(Felis cattus) is common around human settlements, but is rare in the forested regions of New Guinea. In areas where it has established, native animal populations have dramatically decreased.
Birds
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
life, with over 79 families and approximately 730 species that can be classified into four groups: breeding land and freshwater species, sea birds, migrants from the north, and migrants and vagrants from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. There are eight Endemic Bird Areas with about 320 endemic bird species in New Guinea.
The largest birds in New Guinea are the flightless cassowaries
Cassowary
The cassowaries are ratites, very large flightless birds in the genus Casuarius native to the tropical forests of New Guinea, nearby islands and northeastern Australia. There are three extant species recognized today...
, of which all three species are native to New Guinea. Two of these species: the Southern Cassowary
Southern Cassowary
The Southern Cassowary, Casuarius casuarius, also known as Double-wattled Cassowary, Australian Cassowary or Two-wattled Cassowary, is a large flightless black bird...
(Casuarius casuarius) and the Northern Cassowary
Northern Cassowary
The Northern Cassowary, Casuarius unappendiculatus, also known as the Single -wattled Cassowary or Gold-neck Cassowary, is a large, stocky flightless bird.-Taxonomy:...
(Casuarius unappendiculatus) reach heights of 1.8 metres (6 ft). The Southern Cassowary is also native to northern Australia. The cassowary is one of the world's most dangerous birds, for it is capable of inflicting fatal injuries with its powerful legs and the dagger-like claw on its inner toe. It is known to have killed humans.
The pigeons and parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
s are well represented in New Guinea. They achieve their greatest evolutionary diversity in New Guinea for the island is abundant in fruits and nectar producing plants. The parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
s of New Guinea, as with Australia, are very diverse with 46 species, a seventh of the world's total. The forty-five species of pigeons, including the three crowned-pigeons
Goura (genus)
The genus Goura consists of three species of crowned pigeons. They are the largest non-extinct members of the pigeon family. The three crowned pigeons are alike and replace each other geographically. The genus was described by James Francis Stephens in 1819.The phylogeny of the crowned pigeons is...
, the largest pigeons in the world, are a sixth of the world's total.
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
s display the greatest amount of diversity with over 33 families within New Guinea. The passerines of New Guinea are mostly small, often colourful birds which mostly inhabit the forested regions. The best-known family in New Guinea is the Paradisaeidae, one of three families there known collectively as birds of paradise. Many species show extravagant sexual dimorphism. The males can be ornamented with bright, iridescent colours, and modified, ornamental feathers such as tufts and wattles. They also display mating rituals, in which they undergo elaborate movements and calling, to attract females. Some species do not show sexual dimorphism; both male and female can have or lack ornamentation.
Closely related to the birds of paradise are the bowerbird
Bowerbird
Bowerbirds make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. The family has 20 species in eight genera. These are medium-sized passerines, ranging from the Golden Bowerbird to the Great Bowerbird...
s, a group of twenty rather drab, stocky and short-plumed birds found in New Guinea and Australia. It lacks the bright and iridescence color and ornamental plumes found in the birds of paradise, but it is compromised with male's architectural skill. The male builds and decorates elaborate bower, ranging from mats, stick towers, avenued chambers to tipi
Tipi
A tipi is a Lakota name for a conical tent traditionally made of animal skins and wooden poles used by the nomadic tribes and sedentary tribal dwellers of the Great Plains...
-roofed huts and displayed it to the females.
Another odd avifauna from New Guinea is the poisonous birds, notably the Hooded Pitohui
Hooded Pitohui
The Hooded Pitohui, Pitohui dichrous is a songbird of New Guinea with black and orange plumage.This species and its two close relatives, the Variable Pitohui and the Brown Pitohui, were the first documented poisonous birds...
. Scientists discovered in 1989 that the feathers and other organs of the pitohui were found to contain batrachotoxin
Batrachotoxin
Batrachotoxins are extremely potent cardiotoxic and neurotoxic steroidal alkaloids found in certain species of frogs , melyrid beetles, and birds...
. Since then, several New Guinea's songbirds are found to possess the same toxin as well.
New Guinea's top predator is the New Guinea Harpy Eagle
New Guinea Harpy Eagle
The Papuan Eagle also known as the Papuan Harpy Eagle, New Guinea Eagle, or Kapul Eagle, is a huge greyish brown raptor with a short full crest, broad three-banded wings, powerful beak, large iris, long rounded tail and white underparts. It has long and powerful unfeathered legs with sharp claws...
(Harpyopsis novaeguineae). New Guinea shares with the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
the distinction of having a bird as top predator.
Most seabirds native to New Guinea are found throughout the tropics.
Although some species are hunted for meat, valuable plumes and feathers, or for the (often illegal) pet trade, the main threats to most species come from logging and conversion of forest for agriculture, both of which degrade or eliminate important habitat.
Amphibians
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
, known as frogs and toads. There are six families represented in New Guinea. Four of these: Myobatrachidae
Myobatrachidae
Myobatrachidae is a family of frogs found in Australia and New Guinea. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from species less than long, to the second largest frog in Australia, the Giant Barred Frog , at in length...
, Hylidae, Ranidae and Microhylidae
Microhylidae
Microhylidae is a geographically widespread family of frogs. There are 413 species in 69 genera and nine subfamilies, which is the largest number of genera of any frog family.-Description:...
are native. Two specimens of Rhacophoridae
Rhacophoridae
Rhacophoridae is a family of frog species, which occur in tropical regions of Asia and Africa. They are commonly known as shrub frogs, or more ambiguously as "moss frogs" or "bush frogs". Some Rhacophoridae are called "tree frogs"...
, a family well represented in Asia, were discovered in 1926. They were thought to be introduced by humans, and to have become extinct on the island. The other family, Bufonidae, is only represented by two species: the Cane Toad
Cane Toad
The Cane Toad , also known as the Giant Neotropical Toad or Marine Toad, is a large, terrestrial true toad which is native to Central and South America, but has been introduced to various islands throughout Oceania and the Caribbean...
(Chaunus marinus) and the Common Asiatic Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus). The Cane Toad was introduced from Australia in 1937 to control hawk moth larvae, which were eating sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
crops; they have since become common in non-forested areas. The Common Asiatic Toad was accidentally introduced, and is very abundant in a small area in the north-west, and may be spreading further throughout the island.
Frogs from the family Myobatrachidae are highly diverse and widespread in Australia. However, only seven described species have established in New Guinea. In Australia, the largest diversiy is seen in the subtropical and semi-arid environments, with the greatest diversity in the tropics occurring in savannah. New Guinea, however, is mostly covered in dense rainforest. The most common Myobatrachid in New Guinea is the Wokan Cannibal Frog (Lechriodus melanopyga). It is a small ground-dwelling frog found throughout New Guinea. The Lechriodus genus, is the only Myobatrachid genus with greater diversity in New Guinea than Australia. Excluding Lechriodus the rest of the Myobatrachids are mostly restricted to savannah in the southern Fly and Digul River plains.
Tree frogs, of the family Hylidae, have successfully inhabited New Guinea. They are the most diverse family of frogs in New Guinea with over 100 species, and many more to be described. There are two genera represented in New Guinea, Litoria
Litoria
Litoria is a genus of Hylidae tree frogs native to Australia, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Lesser Sunda Islands, the Moluccan Islands, and Timor. They are sometimes collectively referred to as Australasian treefrogs...
and Nyctimystes
Nyctimystes
Nyctimystes is a genus of tree frog in the Hylidae family. They are principally Papuan species but do inhabit islands in the Moluccas and northern Queensland, Australia. All species in this genus have one distinct feature that separates them from other species in the Hylidae genus, the lower eyelid...
. Litoria are found throughout both Australia and New Guinea, however, only one of the 24 species of Nyctimystes has reached Australia. Nyctimystes are arboreal frogs, which lay their eggs in fast flowing streams, behind a rock to avoid it being flushed away. The tadpoles have modified mouths, which use suction to stick to rocks.
Ranidae, also known as true frogs, are the most widely distributed family of frogs on earth, however, they are not well represented in Australia or New Guinea. New Guinea and Australia have been absent of Ranids for most of their history, however since the continent's collision with Asia, species have begun to move across. The Ranids in New Guinea are only represented with one genus, Rana
Rana (genus)
Rana is a genus of frogs. Species include such archetypal pond frogs as the common frog of Europe, brown frogs, and the New and Old World true frogs, including the various species of leopard frogs and the American bullfrog. Members of this genus are found through much of Eurasia, North America,...
.
Although the origins of Microhylidae in New Guinea are very similar to the Ranids, there is much more diversity. The Microhylids are represented by twelve genera in New Guinea, four of which are endemic.
Reptiles
The reptile fauna of New Guinea is represented by three of the four extant orders. The squamatesSquamata
Squamata, or the scaled reptiles, is the largest recent order of reptiles, including lizards and snakes. Members of the order are distinguished by their skins, which bear horny scales or shields. They also possess movable quadrate bones, making it possible to move the upper jaw relative to the...
, also known as the snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s and lizard
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
s, represent the largest group, with approximately 300 described species. The remaining two groups: testudines, or turtles and tortoises, and Crocodilia
Crocodilia
Crocodilia is an order of large reptiles that appeared about 84 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period . They are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria...
, the crocodiles, are much less diverse. The turtles are represented by thirteen described species, and the crocodiles two.
The lizards of New Guinea are represented by approximately 200 described species. Of these, a majority are skink
Skink
Skinks are lizards belonging to the family Scincidae. Together with several other lizard families, including Lacertidae , they comprise the superfamily or infraorder Scincomorpha...
s with a smaller number of gecko
Gecko
Geckos are lizards belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from 1.6 cm to 60 cm....
s and agamids
Agamidae
Agamids, lizards of the family Agamidae, include more than 300 species in Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards. Phylogenetically they may be sister to the Iguanidae, and have a similar appearance. Agamids usually have...
. The snakes, approximately 100 described species, show a much lower rate of endemism than most of New Guinea's fauna.
The turtles of New Guinea are almost equally represented by fresh water turtles as marine. Six species of New Guinea's turtles are marine, and all are found on other land masses. The fresh water turtles are represented by seven species, with three endemic to New Guinea. One species, Parker's Snake-necked Turtle
Parker's Snake-necked Turtle
The Parker's snake-necked Turtle is a species of turtle in the Chelidae family.It is found in West Papua in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.-Source:* Asian Turtle Trade Working Group 2000. . Downloaded on 29 July 2007....
(Chelodina parkeri), is restricted to the Fly River
Fly River
The Fly at , is the second longest river, after the Sepik, in Papua New Guinea. The Fly is the largest river in Oceania, the largest in the world without a single dam in its catchment, and overall ranks as the twenty-fifth largest river in the world by volume of discharge...
.
The Saltwater Crocodile
Saltwater Crocodile
The saltwater crocodile, also known as estuarine or Indo-Pacific crocodile, is the largest of all living reptiles...
(Crocodylus porosus) is the largest reptile native to New Guinea. It is a widely distributed species, from eastern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
to northern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It is found in most of New Guinea's rivers, except for those heavily disturbed by humans, or too small to accommodate the species. The other crocodile native to New Guinea, the New Guinea Crocodile
New Guinea Crocodile
The New Guinea crocodile is a small species of crocodile found on the island of New Guinea.-Description:Crocodylus novaeguineae grows to a length of up to for males and for females, although most specimens are rather smaller. The body is grey-brown in colour, with dark brown to black markings on...
(Crocodylus novaeguineae), is an endemic. It is much smaller than the Saltwater Crocodile. A separate species may occur in southern New Guinea.