New Guinea

• These isolated ecosystems present unparalleled opportunities to study evolution, and the archipelagos of the southwest Pacific are no exception.
• So their total land area may be small, but south-west Pacific islands punch well above their weight in terms of their contributions to global biodiversity.
• Let’s meet five charismatic species you’ve probably never have heard of, but simply must get to know.

1. Black dorcopsis or black forest wallaby (Dorcopsis atrata)

• It looms more than 2,500 metres above sea level, but it’s only about 3,900 metres wide – at the widest point.
• Here among the clouds is the only place you’ll find black dorcopsis.
• Black dorcopsis often have very worn claws, suggesting they spend a great deal of time digging for truffles in the rocky soil.

2. Waigeo cuscus (Spilocuscus papuensis)

Conservation status: vulnerable Distribution: Waigeo (Indonesia) Waigeo cuscus have a remarkable coat. Irregular black splotches stand out against a background of almost pure white. In young animals these contrasting colours are subdued by the presence of blackish-grey tips to the hairs. The cuscus have been photographed in the branches of fruiting fig (Ficus spp.) and breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) trees, so they have a taste for fruit.

3. Bougainville melomys (Melomys bougainville)

• Conservation status: data deficient Distribution: Bougainville (Papua New Guinea), Choiseul and Mono (Solomon Islands) Pacific Island native rodents have proven vulnerable to disturbance, but thankfully Bougainville melomys seems to remain relatively common.
• An active climber, Bougainville melomys can be found tiptoeing along thin woody vines (lianas), in fruiting trees among Bismarck common cuscuses (Phalanger breviceps), or scaling the trunks of wild betel nut palms (Areca spp.).

4. Lesser sheath-tailed bat (Mosia nigrescens)

• Lesser sheath-tailed bats are alert little creatures with good eyesight.
• They rest in small groups huddled together under the cover of a palm leaf where they’re sheltered from the rain.
• Lesser sheath-tailed bats are among the first to emerge of an evening, leaving their palm tree tents while there is still plenty of twilight.

5. Palau flying-fox (Pteropus pelewensis)

• Conservation status: vulnerable Distribution: Ulithi, Yap (Federated States of Micronesia), Palau The south-west Pacific supports an incredible diversity of endemic Pteropus flying-foxes.
• Thankfully the introduction of restrictions under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species stabilised populations of the Palau fying-fox.

So much to learn

• So many unique species evolved here, on discrete areas of land separated by ocean.
• There is still much to learn about many of these mammals.

• Think of seals entangled in netting or whales permanently attached to discarded fishing tackle, so-called “ghost gear”.
• There are many reports of seabird chicks dying after being entangled in old plastic and fishing nets, for instance.
• Some had mistaken plastic for fish or squid, ingested it and then fed it to their young which then died.

Nest-building birds are adapting

• But in our latest research we instead wanted to investigate how birds have actually adapted to live alongside such materials.
• The breeding success of birds is often tightly linked to nest functionality, and we wanted to understand if human-made materials obtained by nest-building adults could be playing an important role.
• This suggests that such behaviour is widespread among birds, including ducks, birds of prey, gulls, cormorants and many songbirds.

Some birds are doing it intentionally

• Both findings supported the idea that nest materials signal the quality of breeding adults and would imply that human-made materials are being included in nests intentionally – the birds are showing off.
• Although not in a nesting context, some support for these findings comes from the bowerbirds of New Guinea and Australia.
• Many birds, including birds of prey, gulls and pigeons, are urban-adapted and breed successfully in cityscapes where human-made materials are readily available.
• The extent to which birds adapt to polluted environments remains underappreciated because a study like ours is only as good as the available data.

• But one of the most interesting is we all feed our newborns with milk.
• But our country is far better known for our marsupials and monotremes, which have different reproductive strategies to placental mammals.
• Their milk not only supplies nutrients for sustenance, but also has factors essential for growth and immunological protection.
• Their milk likely has chemicals serving to attract newborns to the teat even though they have very little sensory or movement ability at this stage.

It can be a fight to find a teat

• These specialised glands evolved 166–240 million years ago and have diversified into a wide range of sizes and shapes.
• For marsupials, the number of teats equates to the number of mammary glands.
• The red-tailed phascogale (Phascogale calura) – a tree-living insect eating marsupial – can give birth to up to 13 young but females only have eight teats.

So what’s in their magic milk?

• As the joeys and puggles get bigger, it becomes more concentrated, with more protein and fat.
• Interestingly, iron levels in marsupial and monotreme milk are three times higher than in placental mammal milk.
• Macropod (big foot in Latin) marsupials like kangaroos and wallabies are capable of an even more remarkable feat.

Producing milk takes effort and energy

• When their offspring are a bit older, the mother leaves them alone and goes on a hunt for ants and termites.
• More milk means faster growth rates for the young.
• Marsupial and monotreme milk also provides essential nutrients and additional factors required to support growth.

Milk, the immunological superhero

• All mammals produce colostrum in their milk in the first few days of lactation.
• This milk often looks different, because it contains billions of antibodies to help defend the newborn.
• In marsupials, milk carries antibodies as well as immunological cells from the mother.

• km mineral exploration land package in Papua New Guinea ("PNG") including multiple Exploration Licenses ("EL") and Exploration License Applications ("ELA").
• FSX team members have significant experience operating within Southeast Asian island arc epithermal and porphyry mineralization environments, and specifically in PNG.
• FSX CEO Bryan Slusarchuk states, "Papua New Guinea is home to multiple world class mining, development and exploration projects and the country hosts some of the most incredible geology on earth.
• The Kainantu Gold Mine, in Eastern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea, is a newly discovered and significant example of diverse Cu-Au mineralisation styles in a porphyry mineral system.