Blue Bay Divers
The country of the 17,000 islands
Indonesia
The Republic od Indonesia contains 1.9 Millions km2 land surface which is distributed among 17000 islands, that means additionally 3.3 km2 water surface belongs to Indonesia.
The Wallace Linie
Alfred Russel Wallace, the so-called father of animal geography, formulated his ideas on evolution by natural selection while observing and collecting wildlife in the islands of Southeast Asia. He marked the channel between Bali and Lombok as the divide between two great zoogeographic regions, the Oriental and Australian. In his honor this dividing line, which extends northward between Borneo and Sulawesi, is still referred to today as Wallace’s Line Amongst the distinctive endemic animal species in the island are the rare anoa, tailless monkey and the inexplicable babirusa, literally meaning “pig deer” (babiroussa babiroussa). The latter are considered the most peculiar mammals of Sulawesi and are protected by law. There are 7 species of Sulawesi black macaques, 3 of which occur in the province of North Sulawesi. They may be seen at Tangkoko Batuangas – Dua Saudara Reserve on the northern tip of the island.
Also indigenous to Sulawesi are the maleo bird (which incubates its 250 gram eggs in mounds of soil warmed by sunlight, hot springs or volcanic vents), tarsier (tarsius spectrum - world’s smallest primate) with its head and body length of just 10 cm, kuskus and the brightly colored Red-knobbed Hornbill. Many of these species may seen in Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve and Bogani Nani Wartabone (formerly known as Dumoga Bone) National Park. Several high-quality woods can be found in these two natural reserves, such as Ebony, Ironwood, linggua, gopasa, nantu, meranti, etc. Rattan and colorful orchids as well as various wild palms and other plant species grow in abundance in the forests throughout the region.
