Papuan Treasures (30/34)

Papuan Treasures (30/34)

There are few uncharted regions left on this planet, but on the remote Bird's Head Peninsula in West Papua there are still some difficult-to-access areas waiting to be discovered. A BR expedition team, led by a local hunter, set out into the wild. Together they find a spectacular whale shark meeting point, discover in the surrounding forests the hut-like structures of the Vogelkop Bowerbird and witness this bird's exciting mating rituals.

Zeth Wonggor, one of the best hunters in the Arfak Mountains of Western New Guinea, long ago recognized that keeping the natural environment intact would do much more to counteract the poverty in his village than overhunting the forests ever could. Since then, Zeth has set his sights on attracting, from all over the world, those visitors with an interest in nature. Fortunately, he is not alone. Together with Indonesian ornithologist Shita Prativi, he takes care of the infrastructure required by modern eco-tourism. There is no lack of birds of paradise, bowerbirds and other unique fauna here in New Guinea. And Zeth and Shita are also opening up regions of New Guinea previously unknown to them. Here visitors can enjoy unique experiences underwater: nowhere else on earth can you watch as whale sharks, the largest fish on earth, spend their days cavorting as they do in Cenderawasih Bay, the "Bay of the Birds of Paradise". On the land too, spectacular scenes await future guests, such as the beautiful courtship displays of the gorgeous birds of paradise. But here the old hunting traditions still prevail ...