Fieldphotos - Highlands

 

The New Guinea Highlands are a chain of mountain ranges and intermountain river valleys, many of which support thriving agricultural communities.
The highlands run generally east-west the length of the island, which is divided politically between Indonesia in the west and the independent state of
Papua New Guinea in the east. Some of the peaks almost rise up to 5000 meters and are capped with ice. The fertile Highlands have long been inhabited
but were not settled by the Western powers during the early colonial period. Indeed they were first visited by western zoologists and explorers, such as Mick
Leahy , who opened the Waghi Valley and Mount Hagen, and Richard Archbold in the 1930s.