Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THAILAND
BRUNEI
PHILIPPINES
MALAYSIA
MALAYSIA
PAPUA
NEW
GUINEA
SINGAPORE
BORNEO
SULAWESI
Jakarta
Bali
Indian Ocean
Lombok
300 miles
Wallace's Line
AUSTRALIA
300 km
Figure 44
Wallace's line divides Indonesia. It marks the collision point between two great
biological provinces — the southeast Asian province to the west and the Australasian prov-
ince to the east.
Sulawesi is the closest of the Indo-Australian islands to Wallace's line,
which remains as abrupt as it was when Wallace discovered it. On a single
afternoon in Tangkoko Park in northern Sulawesi, I encountered a placental
mammal that had crossed Wallace's line towards the east and a marsupial
that was the westernmost representative of the marsupials from Australasia.
They live within a few miles of each other.
Visitors to Tangkoko spend much time trying to see another placental
escapee across the line, the spectral tarsier. These tiny nocturnal prosimian
primates emerge from the interstices of fi g tree trunks just at dusk, to catch
crickets and other insects in their little apelike hands. But the park, which
protects a small part of the 10% of Sulawesi's forests that have not yet been
destroyed, is full of other remarkable animals.
In an open forested area of the park I approached the bank of a stream
and found myself surrounded by a rollicking and totally unafraid troop of
