Wildlife of the Bird's Head Peninsula, Papua, Indonesia
28th September - 5th October 2025
Klalik Rainforest at sunrise, Papua
The island of Papua, also known as New Guinea, has fascinated me since my youth. The second largest island in the world, consisting of thousands of square kilometres of steep, inaccessible mountains covered in lush tropical rainforest… home to a fascinating array of rarely seen animals with Australian origins and an Asian influence, but shaped by millennia of isolation into a unique fauna of its own.
With very little in the way of tourist infrastructure and the few organised group trips way out of my price bracket, I’d given up hope of ever visiting myself. But in September 2025, thanks to the generosity of my mother together with some excellent advice from Jon Hall of mammalwatching.com, I finally managed to arrange an eight-day trip with Papuan guide Absalom Kalami which I hoped would prove an adventure worth the long wait… and I wasn’t disappointed!
Malasigi Eco Village
Sixty-five hours of travel involving a bus, a train, two taxis, three planes and a hair-raising 4x4 pick-up ride, eventually brought me to my first location... Malasigi village on the Bird’s Head Peninsula, South-west Papua. It’s a ‘homestay eco-village’, with the community entirely supported by people like me paying to stay in one of the homes and be guided into the forest to see the incredible local wildlife.
I spent three amazing days exploring the area, with the highlight being the strange magnificent bird-of-paradise below. You can see a video here… watch the two wispy tail feathers closely! There were also birds like the twelve-wired bird-of-paradise, eastern hooded pitta, western crowned pigeon and a host of butterflies, frogs and lizards, as well as some strange mammals.
Magniicent Bird-of-Paradise (Diphyllodes magnificus)
Papuan jumping spider (Salticidae sp.)
Dioptrica Owl Butterfly (Taenaris dioptrica)
Night-time is when the forest really comes alive, accompanied by a deafening chorus of amphibians and insects. It’s the only time to see Papua's unusual mammals as they're almost all nocturnal, and I had the opportunity both on evening night walks and on the way into the forest before light each morning.
Photographing mammals at night is never easy, but with the help of Absalom and local guide Thomas, I managed to get photos of several different species of possum, marsupial relatives of kangaroos and koalas that live in the Papuan tree tops.
Lowland Ringtail Possum (Pseudochirulus canescens)
Common Spotted Cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus)
Purple bush cricket (Tettigoniidae sp.)
Klalik Eco-village
From Malasigi we headed further inland to another, more remote ‘homestay eco-village’ called Klalik where the facilities were even more basic and the trekking even more arduous, but it was definitely worth the effort... because the wildlife was even more exciting!
Having failed to get photos of the frustratingly elusive lesser bird of paradise at Malasigi, I tried again here. And after a total of about 20 hours trekking and searching, finally got the photo below as well as this video of them displaying and mating…
Papua Forest Dragon (Agama sp.)
Lesser Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea minor)
Spiny Bush Cricket (Tettigoniidae sp.)
There were also other birds like paradise kingfishers and hornbills as well as weird and wonderful invertebrates such as the spiky cricket above, and beautiful reptiles like the forest agama and green python. Unfortunately, it rained heavily every afternoon and evening, so I only managed one real night walk… but it was a cracker!
We saw a succession of snakes, frogs and lizards, and the lovely striped possum below posed very nicely for several minutes, but the star of the show was the strange, spiny western long-beaked echidna. This highly endangered creature is the reason the eco-village was created in the first place, and you can see a video here...
Green Tree Python (Morelia viridis)
Western Long-beaked Echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii)
Striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata)
My eight days in Southwest Papua were probably the toughest of any trip I’ve ever done… with the heat, humidity, basic facilities and long hours of trekking on slippery, uneven forest trails up steep mountain slopes. However, it was also probably my most thrilling adventure… experiencing life with these incredible local people in amazing pristine rainforest, and being able to photograph some of the wonderful animals that call it home.
A trip organised by Absalom Kalami is an adventure in itself... a chaotic mixture of enthusiasm, confusion, excitement and celebration! But there’s no way I could have done it without him and I’ll be eternally grateful to both Abaslom and Jon Hall for this amazing opportunity.
Mammal Species
Malasigi
Lowland Ringtail Possum (Pseudochirulus canescens)Common Spotted Cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus)
Northern Common Cuscus (Phalanger orientalis)
Klalik
Western Long-beaked Echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii)Lowland Ringtail Possum (Pseudochirulus canescens)
Striped possum (Dactylopsila trivirgata)
Common Spotted Cuscus (Spilocuscus maculatus)