As one might expect of an island region, where dispersal required the ability to fly or swim, the wildlife of the Moluccas is marked by a scarcity of land mammals and a profusion of birds, insects and fish. The animal world can be characterized as having an impoverished Asian fauna, supplemented by scattered Moluccan endemics and some representatives of the Australian sphere.
During his years of exploration, Wallace found only 10 species of land mammals, several of which were likely to have been introduced by man. The Macaca Nigra, which he found only on Bacan, the civet cat, the Babirusa (only on Buru), deer and a small shrew were brought in as domestic animals or pets, according to the eminent naturalist.
Except for the wild pig, the indigenous species are all marsupials. These include a small, flying opossum and the cuscus, a cat-sized, tree-dwelling creature with a long, prehensile tile, a small head, large eyes and woolly fur. The cuscus is cute little bugger, but unfortunately makes good eating. When sighted, these slow-moving animals are captured by climbing the trees and just grabbing them. Molucca also hosts 25 species of bats.
Moluccan waters harbor an unusual marine mammal as well, the sluggish and gentle dugong. A relative of the freshwater manatee, it is the only marine mammal that is an herbivore. This poor beast is now endangered, thanks to poachers, who eat the 400-600 kilo animals and make cigarette holders out of their tusks.
Although he found few mammals, “The fishes,” Wallace writes, “are perhaps unrivalled for variety and beauty by those of any one spot on earth.” As Wallace notes in 1863, the renowned Dutch ichthyologist Dr. Pieter Bleeker had already identified 780 fish species in Amboyna harbor alone, almost as many species as are found in all the rivers and seas of Europe.
In Wallace’s treks through the forest he saw numerous insects and brilliant birds. The sheer numbers of birds, he notes, are not as high as, for example, tin he tropical Americas. But among the 265 species he identified were some real beauties. The majority were parrots, pigeons, kingfishers, sunbirds and, in the Arus, the spectacular birds of paradise. The 25 parrots include red-crested and sulfur-crested cockatoos, red parrots and crimson lories.
Some of the islands host the bush turkeys or megapodes, primitive birds that lay their eggs in a nest consisting of a huge pile of vegetation or sand, sometimes reaching eight metes in diameter and two meters in height. These birds are evolutionary throwbacks and do not incubate their eggs, but bury them like reptiles. The warm sand or decomposing vegetation provides the heat necessary to hatch the eggs. The chicks, which gestate for a remarkably long two months, spring from their shells quite well-developed and require no further maternal assistance. Unfortunately for the megapodes, man finds their flesh quite tasty, and if the prominent fests are found, steals the eggs too.
The large, extraordinary cassowary, found in Molucca only on the Aru islands and Seram, also ends up in the natives’ pots. These birds are hunted carefully, as the flightless, ostrich-like cassowaries have disemboweled men with their sharp claws and tough feet. The birds stand up to a meter and a half tall, and their large bodies are covered with hair-like feathers—these are used in headdresses and other ornamentation. Instead of wings, cassowaries sprout a group of horny black spines, something line blunt porcupine quills. The birds feed on fallen fruit, insects and crustaceans. The species found on Seram is called the helmeted cassowary because of the horny casque of helmet that adorns its head. The bare skin on the neck of this species is conspicuous with bright blue and red colors.
“There is, perhaps, no island in the world so small as Amboyna [Amboyna] where so many grand insects are to be found,” Wallace writes. The most dramatic is the grand bird-winged butterfly (Ornithoptera Poseidon), whose brilliant blue-green wings, 20 centimeters across, gracefully carry its golden, crimson-breasted body. In addition to the colorful butterflies, Wallace found endless joy in the many strange beetles he found.
(PeriPlus)