Bird of Paradise - Papua New Guinea

With a population of less than 10 million people, there are more than 700 languages spoken in Papua New Guinea. English is the official language, but limited to a small percentage of speakers. The indigenous languages of Papua New Guinea are threatened; most have a handful of speakers and are confined to remote areas. 

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Paradisaea raggiana - The Raggiana bird-of-paradise inhabits the southern and northeastern regions of New Guinea; locally, it is known as kumul. As with most birds, the male is the most vibrant in color and bolder in appearance; the female tends to be drab. The male Raggiana bird-of-paradise has bright plumage and long tail wires used in elaborate dances to gain the attention of potential mates during the breeding season. Males are polygynous, meaning they leave the nesting duties and caring for the hatchlings entirely to the female.

Banana Plant - Papua New Guinea

There are 70 species in the genus Musa; these are the plants producing bananas and plantains. Though it is assumed bananas grow on trees, the “trunk” is made up of tightly compressed leaf stalks strong enough to support the weight of the fruit clusters as they mature and ripen. Bananas are the fruit of giant herb plants. The farmers of Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea were the first to cultivate the banana. The largest producer of bananas is India; the biggest exporter is Ecuador.

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New Guinea, an island shared by Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, is the largest tropical island in the world and the highest in average elevation. This allows for an incredible diversity of fauna and flora. In area, the island of New Guinea comprises less than .05% of the earth’s total surface area, but contains an astonishing 8% of the world’s known vertebrate; over 4,500 species. New Guinea is known for its wide variety of orchids and contains almost 3,000 species representing 3/4’s of the world’s total.

Sugar Glider - Deutsch-Neuguinea

German merchant associations from the Hanseatic League were the first to gain a foothold in the Pacific region in the establishment of two German colonies; New Guinea and Samoa. By 1910 the New Guinea colony had been expanded to include all or part of Nauru, Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall and Solomon Islands.

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Petaurus breviceps - Sugar gliders are marsupials, animals giving birth to under-developed young requiring additional time for growth in the mother’s pouch. The sugar glider is a nocturnal and arboreal animal able to glide distances of 50 meters by extending its gliding membrane. Gliding between trees reduces danger and the amount of energy needed for climbing up and down a tree. The eyes are large enough to allow the animal to see in the dark and set far apart to assist in calculating the launching and landing of each glide.