"Lost World" discovered right in our own backyard!

How can you resist cuddling and kissing a creature like this? It's got "love me, love me" written all over it's face! And no, it's not a big rat, but a quokka, a mammal which greeted us during our recent visit to Rottnest Island in Perth!

Here's one of Maximuzz harnessing his maternal instincts as he sings a wallabi a lullaby! This little fella lost its parents and the owners have become its surrogate parent til it's big enough to fend for itself!


When it grows up, it'll transform itself into a giant Grey Western Kangaroo - or "skippy", as we have come to know it. In reality, these marsupials are considered pests in the land downunder.


Below, these fellas hang out at the cemetary at Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park, knawing at the graves of those buried in this tranquil setting! That's his "kuah si mi, bo song ah?" look! Don't mess around with these fellas....they can beat the crap outta ya!

But this is what you'd expect to see in brochures, TV, promotional pamphlets...animals marketed as endemic only to Australia and..... Indonesia?

Being a geography-bimbo, I recently found out that Indonesia is the result of the collision of 2 massive pieces of the Earth’s crust, created when the Asian and Australia continents ground together and tore apart - to create an island nation called Indonesia. That was how Indonesia’s natural destiny was apparently shaped!

According to the Wild Indonesia website, the Indonesian wildlife originates from two worlds: mainland Asia, with its tigers, elephants and monkeys, and Australia, the land of marsupials, with its kangaroos, wallabies and possums. It's the only country on earth that is home to both tigers and kangaroos! And it's right at our doorstep!

Photo above extracted from : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_060207_new_species.html

And it's where the above golden-mantled tree kangaroo was recently first spotted in Indonesia's Foja Mountains! Read this article entitled '"Lost World" Found in Indonesia Is Trove of New Species" in the Nat Geo website! Wonder if they'll discover cousins of the Komodo Dragon, the ones that breathe real fire and can spread its wings and traverse over volcanos. :P I can just see it now, a true-life King Kong story!

My only exposure to the Indonesian islands are purely diving-related! The best dive spots I've ever experienced were in Indonesian waters! On the top of my list are the islands of Derawan, Sangalaki, Manatua and Kakaban in Kalimantan, the Indonesian side of Borneo! The strangest creatures I've ever seen were living in the muckfields of Manado.

I'm totally convinced Asia is really "hot" on the biodiversity list!