Some Meanings of BioDiversity
A sketch of some meanings, effects, and reflections on biodiversity and life… Fist this absurd piece of news from The Daily Telegraph:
“A LIVE squirrel sent in the mail from Bali has sparked raids on two Sydney homes.
Customs and Quarantine officers raided two homes in Harbord on Sydney’s northern beaches after they intercepted a live squirrel in a mail package sent from the Indonesian island.
The rodent was found secreted in a sock inside a package marked DVDs by customs officers on December 2.
It died a short time later, Customs national manager of investigation Richard Janeczko said.
“On this occasion, the squirrel had suffered during its journey in captivity and died shortly after being freed, highlighting the cruel aspect of such smuggling attempts,” he said.
“Any smuggling of animals into Australia is also a concern for health reasons as it poses a high quarantine risk with the real possibility of introducing deadly diseases into the environment,” he said.
The maximum penalty for offences under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act is 10 years jail, a fine of $110,000 or both.”
The area with an epicenter in Indonesia, bounded by the Phillippines, New Guinea, and Malaysia, is the home to the greatest density of marine species on the Earth. Speculation is that although there was a mass extinction during the last ice ages in the Atlantic region the phenomenon spared this area of the Asian Pacific and left a richness and diversity of life unsurpassed by any other region on Earth. Sulawesi and Bali and the islands east of Bali- Komodo, Flores, and Alor among them- are also hotspots of biodiversity.
From Michael Bode’s site on Sulawesi:
“Sulawesi has been separated from the asian mainland since the ice age. So animals and plants could develop here, which are not found anywhere else on this world. 90 % of the mamals in Sulawesi are endemic, among them the Babi rusa, a mixture of deer and wild pig, 3 species of dwarf buffaloes and the smallest monkey of the world, Tarsius spectrum.”
You can see this same page for the disturbing picture of a man partially swallowed by a large python in Sulawesi. Perhaps a comment in itself on one meaning of biodiversity.