Newly discovered: are these the world's weirdest creatures?
This seems to be a month of "new species" being discovered. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the unfortunate bald creature found in China, accused of being a "Yeti", and the giant lizard discovered in Indonesia. Today, conservationists are celebrating the culmination of a three-year initiative that has resulted in the discovery of 123 new species in a protected zone of rain forest in central Borneo. Despite the fact that Borneo has been visited many times by explorers since the Portuguese first landed there in 1521, there are large areas of its interior which have still not been thoroughly investigated by biological researchers. The new species are listed in a WWF report published today. along with other details of the conservation project, which began in 2007 with an agreement between the governments of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The new species include bizarre and colourful creatures that could have been dreamt up by Hollywood movie producers:
- A flying frog with a Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde propensity to change colour between nightfall and daybreak
- A 1.5m long bronze-back snake that flares the nape of its neck when threatened, revealing intimidating bright orange colours
- The world's longest insect, a giant stick insect measuring over half a metre long
- A new species of bird, the delightfully named Spectacled Flowerpecker.
- A lungless frog that has evolved to breathe through its skin, with a flattened, more aerodynamic profile that allows it to move more nimbly through fast flowing forest rivers
- A bright green slug that uses "love darts" to fire hormone-inducing mini-harpoons into prospective mates during courtship rituals
- Twenty nine new species of invertebrates, including wasps, ants and beetles.
Whatever about the truth or otherwise of man-made global warming, there's no doubt that our species has been highly effective at stripping nature's resources from the surface of the earth. The work of the WWF in collaborating with local governments to conserve 220,000 km2 of rainforest – almost 1/3 of the island of Borneo – is surely an achievement worth celebrating.
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