Bird's Head Peninsula
Kepala Burung, Doberai Peninsula | |
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Pegunungan Arfak | |
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| Largest settlement | Sorong |
The Bird's Head Peninsula (Indonesian: Kepala Burung, Dutch: Vogelkop, meaning Bird's Head in Indonesian and Dutch) or Doberai Peninsula (Semenanjung Doberai), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces of Southwest Papua and West Papua. It is often referred to as The Vogelkop, and is so named because its shape looks like a bird's head on the island of New Guinea. The peninsula at the opposite end of the island (in Papua New Guinea) is called the Bird's Tail Peninsula. The peninsula just to the south is called the Bomberai Peninsula.
Location and geography
The Bird's Head Peninsula is at the northwestern end of the island of
The peninsula is around 200 by 300 kilometers, and is bio-geographically diverse, containing coastal plains to the south. The Arfak Mountains are a 2900-meter-high mountain range that is found in the east. Slightly lower than the Arfak Mountains, the Tamrau Mountains are found in the north. Bon Irau is the highest mountain in the Tamrau Mountains, at 2,501 meters (8,205 feet). The highest mountain on the Bird's Head Peninsula is Mount Arfak. It is 2,955 meters (9,695 feet) high and is located 21 miles southwest of Manokwari. Both of the mountain ranges have a diverse mix of sandstone, limestone, and volcanic rock. A large basin called the Kebar Valley divides the two mountain ranges.[1]
Flora and fauna
The peninsula is part of three
Road construction, illegal logging, commercial agricultural expansion and ranching potentially threaten the integrity of the ecoregion.[2] The south-eastern coast of the Bird's Head Peninsula forms part of the Teluk Cenderawasih National Park.[3]
Culture
Archaeological findings indicate that local settlement dates back at least 26,000 years BP.
Languages
Papuan Malay is the local lingua franca spoken in the Bird's Head Peninsula. The official language is Indonesian.[4]
The Austronesian languages spoken on the Bird's Head Peninsula mostly belong to the South Halmahera–West New Guinea (SHWNG) group.[4]
There are various non-Austronesian
Papuan language families:
- South Bird's Head
- East Bird's Head
- Nuclear East Bird's Head
- Hatam–Mansim
- West Bird's Head
See also
References
- ^ a b Flip van Helden: A bird’s eye view of the Bird’s Head Peninsula, in Irian Jaya Studies Programme for Interdisciplinary Research (IIAS) Newsletter nr.37, June 2005 Archived 2011-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 11 May 2010
- ^ a b c WWF: Bird wonders of New Guinea’s western-most province, retrieved 11 May 2010
- ^ Ministry of Forestry: Teluk Cenderawasih NP Archived 2010-12-29 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 11 May 2010
- ^ ISBN 978-3-11-028642-7.
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