NOVEL AVIFAUNAL INVENTORY OF GUNUNG Q, AN OVERLOOKED OUTLYING MOUNTAIN RANGE IN PAPUA, INDONESIA
Keywords:
avifauna, Gunung Q, outlying mountain, PapuaAbstract
Papua is the second-largest island on earth and a major centre of biodiversity, but remains
underexplored. The island’s montane fauna is particularly rich in endemic species, but most of its
exploration has historically focused on the main cordillera that stretches across the island from east to
west. Exploration of a number of smaller, isolated outlying mountain ranges has recently produced a
substantial amount of new species discovery. We explored the avifauna of Gunung Q, an isolated
outlying mountain in the province of Papua (Jayapura) rising to ~1800m, with no topographic
connection to any nearby mountain range. To the best of our knowledge, Gunung Q has never previously
been inventoried by biologists. Our fieldwork, which encompassed exploration of the mountain only up
to ~1100m, produced various new regional records and suggests that Gunung Q has the potential for
substantial undiscovered endemism at higher elevations.
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