In 2005, Bruce Beehler embarked upon a Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) expedition to the remote and mysterious Foja Mountains in western New Guinea, which he had been making efforts to visit since the 1970s. The trip produced, among other amazing things, forty species new to science as well as the first new bird discovery for the island in over 60 years. Bruce’s expedition was, in his words, "way beyond expectations."

Bruce became interested in nature, and birds in particular, as a small boy. He remembers the first time he saw a red-bellied woodpecker in 1958 as an early moment of inspiration. Bruce went on to write his undergraduate honors thesis on birds at Williams College and earned his Master’s and Ph.D. at Princeton, writing his dissertation on the ecology and behavior of four species of bird of paradise in New Guinea. Over the course of his career, he has worked with numerous scientific organizations. He has been with CI for ten years.

While on this particular trip to the Foja Mountains, Bruce’s team identified a previously undescribed species of honeyeater, which he later named after his wife. Amazingly, it was virtually the first bird they encountered upon entering the Foja Mountains. On their second day in the jungle, a male and female of a "lost" bird of paradise (Parotia berlepschi) appeared in camp, the male dancing and displaying spectacularly for the female. "I was too spellbound to go get my camera," says Bruce. "It would have been a stunning series of photographs." The group did manage, however, to capture the first photographs of the golden-fronted bowerbird (Amblyornis flavifrons) displaying in front of its bower.

Bruce and his comrades traveled though areas of old growth tropical forest never visited by humans. "The larger, edible game mammals, which are typically rare or absent in most forests, were common and in some cases quite unwary. We found the long-beaked echidna (Zaglossus bruijnii), a bizarre egg-laying mammal, and all we had to do was pick them up and carry them into camp to be studied." Bruce has been working in New Guinea for 35 years, but this sighting was a first.

While the RAP team enjoyed a good amount of luck on its three-week expedition, the rainy conditions in the forest made life in the mountains challenging. "The camp itself became a horrible festering bog of mud and muck.... The only time we felt even close to clean was when we were asleep in our sleeping bags." But being in the jungle, a place filled with wildlife and pristine beauty, was paradise. "I have never been to a place like this."

Less than two years later, Beehler returned to the Foja Mountains, this time with the CBS 60 Minutes crew to capture the first-ever video footage of the Fojas. CBS was able to film various species and courtship displays of the Golden-fronted Bowerbird, Black Sicklebill, Berlepsch's Bird of Paradise, and the Wattled Smoky Honeyeater and gain abundant footage of cultural activities at Papasena Village and of fieldwork activities by CI and the team in the Foja Mountains.

The team also encountered a probable new species of Mallomys giant rat – a full 1.4 kilograms and almost two feet long!

Do you have questions or comments about the Foja Mountains expedition? Write to us at foja@conservation.org.