Pages

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Dima a Russian Biologist Who Likes to Study Tropical Bats

Bats are night animals. They sleep during the day and find food at night. In today's post, I am going to introduce you someone from Russia. His name is Dima and he is interested in studying wild animals especially bats. Dima works as a consultant who advice rich people in Moscow about the food that they should give to their animals or pets. He said that certain wealthy Russians have private zoo. He became interested in bats after a staff from a zoo there gave him a tropical bat to study. He kept the bat at home and feed it with tropical fruits which he bought from supermarket. Dima has just been in Manokwari for four days but he has been traveling hundreds of kilometers around the forest of this regency.
Dima a visitor from Russsia in West Papua
Dima at Raimuti island

Souvenirs for visitors
Russian visitors were looking at souvenirs in Manokwari

Russian visitors in West Papua
Bats in a cave in Manokwari
Tomorrow Dima is going to go to Mansinam island. Seventy percent of the island is still covered with rainforest. There is a place there where bats sleep hanging on trees. When we were exploring a cave in Table Mountain (Gunung Meja) of Manokwari several days ago, he caught lizards and observed bats in closer distance. Dima said that the food which the bats in Russia eat are different from the food that the tropical bats eat. In Dima's opinion, big size bats of the tropical region eat fruits while small bats that live in caves eat insects. Dima was surprised when the local indigenous people of Papua said that small bats eat the nectar of banana flowers or kersen fruits whose taste is sweet.
Dima is interested in catching a bat if we go to Mansinam island. Perhaps he wants to study it for a while before letting it go again to its habitat. We will go tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. I hope that the weather there will be fine and we will be able to take pictures inside the forest of the Mansinam island without any difficulties.

Mansinam island is a small island located in the Dore bay of Manokwari. In 5 February 1855, two European evangelists came to the island to preach Christianity. Hundreds of years later, most of the population in Papua now are Christians with the largest denomination is GKI or Gereja Kristen Injili. If tourists go to the island, they will see a big cross monument standing on the western part of the island, facing the town. Our first destination on the island will be the eastern side where there is a small lagoon. Under the water, coral reef thrive well. It is a home for various kinds of fish. Mansinam island has been reported by many scuba divers as a good place for shipwreck diving. Mike said that they will be doing some snorkling activities around the area to see the wonderful scenery of the corals and the colorful fish that live among them. by Charles Roring

Available now:

No comments:

Post a Comment