PNG-continued

I'm increasingly realizing that the shear amount of photo and journal material I took down in PNG might ultimately be unpostable- with much still to see and record in Japan, I may simply not be able to make enough posts to cover the experience of PNG. I'll do my best, but the posts from here on out will be more terse (more pics, fewer explanations), as I try to get things posted before whatever my Golden Week activities (whatever those may wind up being...).

So- moving on.

The next day in Lae we went to a sort of rainforest sanctuary, wherein were housed various New-Guinean creatures for our perusal. Part of the idea in constructing the sanctuary was to increase tourism to the area. Whether or not it's working is questionable (probably because Lae is still just a dangerous area), but the sanctuary was well-run, and contained an impressive menagerie of Jungle creatures. I was thoroughly intrigued. Here are some pictures:

Birds of Paradise were housed in large numbers in a forest enclosure, like so:



And so...



They also had freshwater crocodiles. When most people think of crocodiles, they think of the monstrous salt water crocodiles, that can reach the size of a small boat, and probably eat one too. These fresh water crocs offer a contrast, coming in at about 2 feet long.



Then there were the Cassowarys, quite possibly the most blatantly cool bird I have ever seen. It stands about shoulder-high, and is the closest living thing to a velociraptor that yet stalks the face of the Earth. Read the Wiki for more in-depth info, but these things are scary, occasionally disemboweling hunters who have the pluck to go after them.




This tree kangaroo was one of the more photogenic animals in the preserve. Their enclosure was easily escaped, so much so that they routinely left it to explore the surrounding trees. However, the steady food supply and safety of the enclosure proved too good to pass up, and so they spent their nights and much of their days inside nonetheless.




Here we have the legendary Saltwater Crocodile, basking in the sun in its little concrete pond. I tried to get a picture of it eating the chicken on the stick (bottom pic), but the time between the wind-up and the chomp was so small that anything but a video would have been impossible. I'm grateful that I didn't see any of these outside of the jungle enclosure.





Christian befriends a snake around lunchtime. It was as friendly as might be expected from a creature with no neocortex.



Another of our number peeling what I think might be a mango. Part of our first lunch was indicative of things to come: loads of fresh and somewhat unfamiliar fruits. The most interesting was probably the passion fruit- an orange, grenade-shaped drupe whose interior had the consistency of thick tapioca. The flavor was amazing.



Finally, I love plants, and the variety of colors and shapes I encountered in the PNG plant world was marvelous. I'll be posting more plant pictures periodically, but here are some from the rainforest sanctuary:






That's all for the sanctuary. After this, it's to the jungle!