Guests

Priscilla is a Program Coordinator for Life Sciences and works on education programs at Melbourne Museum.

"There’s still plenty to discover in the jungles of Sulawesi," said Dr Kevin Rowe yesterday, via satellite phone from the jungles of Indonesia. He was phoning in to HQ – Museum Victoria, that is; he and his field crew are deep in the jungle, with email access a day’s hike away.

Dr Kevin reported that he and MV Ornithology Fellow, Dr Karen Rowe, have been enjoying great success on their current field trip. “To date, we’ve caught eight species of rats, two species of squirrels, five species of shrews and 13 species of birds”. He further explained that these mammals are all endemic, meaning that they are not to be found anywhere else in the world.

The crew has two camps set up at different altitudes. Kevin and Karen are camped at an altitude of 1600 metres, while Wayne Longmore, Museum Victoria’s Collection Manager of Terrestrial Vertebrates, is working with others at 400 metres above sea level.

While we here in Melbourne have been melting, during the hottest March since records began, Kevin and the crew have been experiencing endless rain. "Rain, rain and more rain, with days reaching a maximum of 16 degrees Celsius" said Kevin. "It’s a big cloud forest here, which leads to a lot of moss on the trees." And where there’s endless rain, there’s plenty of mud, making the work of our scientists tougher as they set out their 240 traps each night, ahead of collecting and checking them all the very next day and processing the data in daylight.

The birdsong metre being demonstrated by museum volunteer, Bentleigh, during a trip to the Grampians.
Source: Museum Victoria

Dr Karen Rowe said that they had found many birds on this trip too, including honeyeaters, fantails and goshawks. Simply trying to sight these birds can be very difficult in thick jungle, however, so, to better understand the bird life of Sulawesi, she has been using a song meter to automatically record birdsong, which she can analyse later to determine which birds are living in the area.

The crew are in the jungle until this Saturday, when they will hike out at night. Through the rain, Kevin says "the views of the jungle from the lookouts are beautiful." However, they have only a few more days to enjoy the sights; they'll be back in Melbourne a week from Saturday. Meanwhile, there just may be some more discoveries yet to be made...

Dr J. Patrick Greene is the CEO of Museum Victoria.

At the 2002 European Museum of the Year awards I described the National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a "demonstration of the indomitable human spirit".

Thanks to sheer dedication and spirit of its staff members, the Museum had survived a chaotic decade of conflict and destruction. Located in Sarajevo, the Museum was involved in many military operations over the course of the conflict and suffered significant structural losses from intensive bombing. Despite having no roof or heating the staff continued to stand by their institution, opening the Museum for a Museum Day while the war raged on around it. Scientists, security guards, curators all took turns standing guard outside the Museum during the conflict and thanks to their gallant effort only 10 per cent of the objects in the Museum's collection were damaged.

A cello player in the partially destroyed National Library, Sarajevo during the war in 1992. The cellist is local musician Vedran Smailović, who often came to play for free at different funerals during the siege despite the fact that funerals were often targetted by Serb forces.
Image: Mikhail Evstafiev
Source: CC BY-SA 3.0 via wikipedia.org  

In 2013, the Museum is again under threat. Today marks the six month anniversary of the closure of the National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina after 124 years of existence. Despite the Museum housing objects of national and international significance, in 2012 wooden planks were nailed over its doors after political debate regarding the funding of national institutions could not be resolved.

The doors of the closed National Museum of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Image: Oslobodjenje
Source: http://www.cultureshutdown.net/  

In response, cultural institutions across the world have joined together in order to draw awareness of this crisis by symbolically closing off an object on display for three days culminating in the global Day of Museum Solidarity today. I am very proud that Museum Victoria could take part in this action by symbolically 'taping off' an object on the ground floor of the Immigration Museum. The object being 'taped off' is a model double spiral staircase crafted from Brazilwood by Heinrich Munzel in Brazil between 1835 and 1850. This action is now part of a virtual exhibition showing different institutions' solidarity acts from across the globe including the Museum of Contemporary Arts (NSW), Museum of Modern Art Chicago (USA) and the Oslo Museum (Norway).

To visit the virtual exhibition or find out more about the global Day of Museum Solidarity head over to the Culture Shutdown website.

Taped off Model Staircase by Heinrich Munzel at the Immigration Museum.
Image: Emily Kocaj
Source: Museum Victoria  

Kevin is our Senior Curator of Mammals. He investigates the systematics, evolution and conservation biology of mammals with a particular interest in rodents.

Greetings from the province of Sulawesi Tengah (Central Sulawesi). Last Friday (22 Feb), my colleague, Anang S. Achmadi, and I returned to the city of Palu. Over the past week we hiked into forests around Mount Sojol and Mount Dako along the western coast of the northern peninsula of Sulawesi.

Kuala Besar river east of Malannga Selatan in the foothills of Mount Dako. Our low camp is set along this river.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

Our hike into Mount Sojol led us to exceptional lowland rainforest in the river valley, but we were uncertain about where we would set a high camp along the steep slopes of the mountain. After three days of hiking into the forests around Mount Dako, near the city of Toli Toli, we found a low camp in lowland rainforest along the river, Kuala Besar, at 300 metres elevation. We also found a high camp on the Mount Dako plateau at 1600 metres. The vast plateau stretching for several kilometers north and east of Mount Dako is covered in old growth rainforest.

Lowland rainforest near 1000 metres on the trail up to our high elevation camp Mount Dako plateau.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

The view west towards Toli Toli Bay from the trail up Mount Dako at near 700 metres elevation.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

We returned to Toli Toli on Sunday after collecting supplies and the rest of our field team. We are now a party of ten, including scientists and students from Museum Victoria, Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Padang University in Sumatra, the University of California, Berkeley, and McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. On Monday, we reported to the local police and purchased food and supplies from the Pasar (market).

Our guides on our third day of hiking around Mount Dako. Left to right: Heri, Jamudin and Madi.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

Part of our assembled team in Palu, Sulawesi Tengah, before heading to Toli Toli and our hike into camp. Left to right: Jake Esselstyn (McMaster University), Karen Rowe (Museum Victoria), Jim Patton (UC Berkeley), Carol Patton (UC Berkeley), and Wayne Longmore (Museum Victoria).
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

On Tuesday, we met in the village of Malangga Selatan that is the last village before the western foothills of Mount Dako. Assisted by the strength of 60 local men we began the hike from the village at 200 metres into our camps. The team at low elevation reached their camp at 400 metres by Tuesday evening. To reach the high camp, we climbed all day to reach 1200 metres elevation and stopped for the night on the only patch of flat ground before the plateau. On Wednesday, we continued climbing for several more hours to reach our camp on the plateau at 1600 metres elevation. We will remain in camp until 16 March when we will hike back down to the village. Over the next 18 days we will document all the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians we encounter.

View Sulawesi Field Team in a larger map

Kevin is our Senior Curator of Mammals. He investigates the systematics, evolution and conservation biology of mammals with a particular interest in rodents.

Greetings from the province of Sulawesi Tengah (Central Sulawesi). Last Friday 15 Feb, I flew from Jakarta to the city of Palu near the base of the northern peninsula of Sulawesi. I am accompanied by my colleague, Anang S. Achmadi, curator of mammals at Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense.

Anang S. Achmadi prepares to board the flight from Jakarat to Palu.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

On Saturday, Anang and I hired a driver in Palu and drove 200 km up the west coast along the Trans-Sulawesi Highway to villages around Mount Sojol (3050 m) where we are seeking a suitable field camp. An ideal camp will be set in healthy forest, have access to water, and as much flat ground as possible (steep ridges do not make for the best trapping). Our objective is to find two camps, one at low elevation (<1000 m) and a second at high elevation (>1000 m). Different species live at different elevations so to maximise the diversity of species in our surveys we try to run two camps concurrently.

Saturday afternoon we arrived in the villages west of Mount Sojol. We met with local elder Pak Waasire's son-in-law who arranged for a guide to take us into the forests that surround the mountain. On Sunday morning we met Sam, our guide, in the cacao plantations west of Mount Sojol. We hiked for three hours through cacao plantations and reached the last house at the end of trail in a thicket of ferns. Sam cut our way through ferns and we descended steeply into lowland rainforest. A hundred metres down the slope the rain began to fall and two of Sulawesi's crested black macaques, Macaca nigra, protested in the trees above us.

Our guide, Sam, followed by Anang S. Achmadi and our driver, Aziz, start the hike towards the forests of Mount Sojol.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

We continued down the slope for another hour and reached a flat area at the confluence of the two large rivers of the valley. We stopped and ate lunch while the rain poured down and we sheltered under a rock. We left our lunch and followed the river down stream hiking through intact rainforest for an hour and a half before reaching cacao plantations. The forest here is spectacular, a rare example of lowland forest left on Sulawesi and there is ample room for a camp. However, we are uncertain about the location of a high camp. Sam suggests that an additional full days hike uphill will bring us to another camp. We returned to the village and bid farewell to Sam.

Stopping at a river crossing, Sam points out a Sulawesi hornbill, Pnelopides exarhatus, to Anang S. Achmadi.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

Before we can start our camp in Sojol we must wait for the arrival of the remainder of our team who just arrived in Jakarta on Saturday (16 Feb) from Australia, Canada and the USA. On Monday, they began the paperwork that we started last week with RISTEK, Imigrasi, Polri and Dalam Negeri. While we waited for their arrival, Anang and I drove another 250 km north to the town of Toli-Toli to scout the forests around Mount Dako (2240 m) on the north coast of Sulawesi just where the northern peninsula turns east. On Monday afternoon we arrived in Toli-Toli and continued north to Kecamatan Galang where we turned east towards the mountains. We followed the road to the end where we met two locals and arranged for a guide to take us up the trail the next morning. On Tuesday we hiked several hours into lowland forest and will post the results of our hike when we are next in contact.

River where we stopped for in lowland rainforest on the west slopes of Mount Sojol.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

We will decide which site is most suitable for our team before this weekend (23 Feb) when we will rendezvous with them in Palu. Together we will drive back up the coast and hike into our field camp for nearly 3 weeks of remote surveys. We will post more photos next week and you can track our movements on the Sulawesi Field Team Google map.

View Sulawesi Field Team in a larger map 

Kevin is our Senior Curator of Mammals. He investigates the systematics, evolution and conservation biology of mammals with a particular interest in rodents.

Greetings from Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (the national zoological museum of Indonesia) in the Indonesian province of Jawa Barat (West Java). This week my colleagues and I are preparing for our expedition to the island of Sulawesi. As always, I am hosted by my friend and collaborator, Anang S. Achmadi, curator of mammals at MZB.

In addition to packing gear, I need to visit several government offices this week to obtain travelling permits. On Monday, I reported to the Indonesian office of research permits, RISTEK, in Jakarta.

Kevin C. Rowe (fifth from left) and Anang S. Achmadi (third from left) with the RISTEK team in their Jakarta office on Monday, 11 February.
Image: Jacob Esselstyn
Source: Museum Victoria  

RISTEK is my official sponsor while I am in Indonesia and they approved my proposed research prior to my departure from Melbourne. On Monday RISTEK provided letters of support to take to Imigrasi (Immigration), Polri (National Police), and Dalam Negeri (Ministry of Home Affairs). Each of these offices will provide documents to allow our travel in Indonesia on research activities.

Anang S. Achmadi reviews the permit procedures at the Polri office in Jakarta.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

On Monday, we successfully submitted our paperwork at both Imigrasi and Polri (Polri PICS). This is my fourth trip to Indonesia for research and the improvement in efficiency over this time has been dramatic. Imigrasi and Polri have seen major renovations and the experience this year is remarkably stress free.

On Tuesday, I moved to Bogor (about an hour south of Java) to work at the museum with Anang while Imigrasi and Polri process my paperwork. Here Anang and I inventoried our gear and reviewed specimens to help us with identifications in the field.

Kevin in front of Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria

Kevin examines a specimen of the spiny, lowland Sulawesi shrew-rat, Echiothrix centrosa, collected in 1975 and held in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense collection. The species has hardly been seen since, and is a primary target for the expedition.
Image: Anang Achmadi
Source: Museum Victoria  

Wednesday I returned to Jakarta and collected my travelling documents from Imigrasi and Polri. I also visited Dalam Negeri to apply for my travelling permits from their office. By Friday, my paperwork should be complete and Anang and I will fly to the city of Palu in Sulawesi Tengah (central Sulawesi) where the next stage of our expedition begins.

The team are sending us daily GPS coordinates to let us track their progress on a Google map of the expedition.

View Sulawesi Field Team in a larger map 

Kevin is our Senior Curator of Mammals. He investigates the systematics, evolution and conservation biology of mammals with a particular interest in rodents.

I'm about to depart on the next expedition to the high mountains of Sulawesi along with MV Ornithology Fellow Karen Rowe, and MV Collection Manager of Terrestrial Vertebrates Wayne Longmore. We'll be surveying birds, rodents, bats and shrews, in areas virtually unknown to science.

Kevin Rowe in montane forest on the island of Sulawesi.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria

Karen Rowe conducting fieldwork in lower montane forest on the island of Sulawesi.
Image: Peter Smissen
Source: Museum Victoria

N. Wayne Longmore with a Sulawesi Kingfisher (Ceyx fallax) in lowland rainforest.
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria  

An evolutionary cross-roads between Australia and Asia, the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to mostly endemic species (those found nowhere else) and its mix of dense equatorial rainforest and mountain peaks of some 3,000 metres lends a profusion of life rarely seen worldwide.

Our primary target on the coming expedition is Mount Sojol on Sulawesi's northern peninsula. We know from observational bird surveys that vertebrate diversity is probably quite high, but there have been virtually no specimens collected from this part of Indonesia. Like many mountains on Sulawesi, only the local people really know what is there.

However, before we can start any surveys there's a lot to do. This week the team is packing equipment and supplies needed to collect and preserve specimens. On Saturday, I fly to Jakarta.

I'll spend my first week in Indonesia completing visa and permit paperwork with visits to several government offices. Between paperwork, I will prepare supplies and examine specimens with collaborators at Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (the national zoological museum of Indonesia).

Once the paperwork is complete, I will fly to Palu, Sulawesi and will travel 200 km up the Trans-Sulawesi Highway to the village of Siboa. From Siboa, my collaborators and I will meet with local people including the village head, or kepala desa, to obtain their support and approval. With the help of local guides we will hike into the mountains where we will spend a week searching for suitable field camps. Karen, Wayne, and other collaborators from the USA will meet me in Palu after a week of completing their own paperwork in Jakarta. They will make the trek into the forest camp and begin the process of surveying the unique birds and mammals of Mount Sojol, Sulawesi.

In the sixth week, we will all return to Palu to share the results of the inventory with the Indonesian Department of Forestry before flying back to Jakarta. There we'll spend a final week packing specimens and obtaining permits to export the specimens to Australia where they will join the state collection at Museum Victoria.

The Sulawesi research trip is part of a multi-year project supported by the National Geographic Society, the Australian Pacific Science Foundation, the Ian Potter Foundation and the Hugh D T Williamson Foundation that includes key research partners Museum Victoria, the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (National Museum of Indonesia), the Field Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of California, Berkeley, and McMaster University. The multi-national team comprises Canadian, American, Australian and Indonesian researchers.

The team's announcement that they had discovered a remarkable new rodent genus – an almost toothless, worm-eating rat, Paucidentomys vermidax – made international headlines last year.

New genus and species, Paucidentomys vermidax
Image: Kevin Rowe
Source: Museum Victoria

Skull of new genus and species, Paucidentomys vermidax, the first rodent discovered with no molars.
Image: David Paul
Source: Museum Victoria