So I thought making species fact files to learn some of the basics of the animals out in Tasikoki would be a helpful endeavour. They sent me over a list and at first glance it seemed like a good list and it wouldn’t be too taxing to get the basic information I wanted… As it turns out it wasn’t as simple as I thought.
I thought the best places to find the information I needed on the internet would be the IUCN Red List, ARKive, and Encyclopedia of Life. So I started off with making a basic template that would be easy to get the information off of when reading. That was the most successful part of the task.
Indonesia covers 1% of the world’s land mass, and is host to 17% of the World’s animal species! It is comprised of approximately 17,000 islands and is one of the most biodiverse countries in the World! Yet, from my search of species at Tasikoki, it must have the most, least studied animals in the World. I would say that most of Tasikoki’s animals are “popular” animals as most are confiscated from the illegal pet trade, and yet at least half of the species there either have no available information on them or are described as the least studies of their respective genus in Indonesia.
Perhaps I need a trip to the Natural History Museum in London before I leave the country in November.
My degree in Animal Behaviour is certainly going to be tested as I appear to have to work from scratch on many of these in the coming year.
TTFN!