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The Ritzy Hotel Arcade, Jl. Piere Tendean, Manado 95111 - North Sulawesi Indonesia Phone
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“Situated in the very midst of an Archipelago, and closely hemmed in on every side by islands teeming with varied forms of life, its productions have yet a surprising amount of Individuality; While it is poor in the actual number of its species, it is yet wonderfully rich in peculiar forms, many of which are singular or beautiful, and are in some cases absolutely unique upon the globe.” Sulawesi is one of the five big islands of Indonesia. And it is the biggest and the most important one in Wallacea, an unique area in the world where flora and fauna from Asia and Australia meet and grow together. A strange and unique mixture that world has had. North Sulawesi flora is a very varied ecosystem stretching in forms of large swamp forests of mangrove with black mud's, waving lowlands forest of lumut up on the mountains. The typical flora are several kinds of Pohon Bakau or Mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata, Bruguiera cylindrica, Avicennia alba, Sonneratia), Pohon Ara or Beringin (Ficus), Pohon Nantu (Palaquium amboinense), Pohon Rao (Dracontomelum dao) and Palem (Caryota mitis, Oncosperma orridum, Areca, Arenga saccharifera), Livistona rotundifolia, Calamus spp), Kantung Semar (Nephentes). The species of fauna are Sapi Utan or Anoa (Bubalus depressicornis), which has been the cause of much controversy wether it should be classed as ox, buffallo or antelope. It is smaller than any other wild cattle, seems to approach some of the ox-like antilope of Afrika. It is found only in the mountains and is said never to inhabit places where there are deer; Babirusa (Babyroussa babyrussa) or Pig-deer named from its long and slender legs, and curved tusks resembling horns; Maleo (Megacephalon rubripes) the helmeted bird using the vulcanic-heated soil, or hotsprings area, or open air beach, to hatch its 250 gram-weight eggs; Julang Sulawesi (Rhyticetos cassidix), the brightly colored Red-knobbed bird, which have no close allies in those which abound in the surrounding countries. Kuskus (Ailurops ursinus & Strigocuscus celebensis), the slow-moving leaf-eater bear; Yaki (Macaca nigra), the black monkey with a long crest on its head; Tangkasi (Tarsius spectrum) which is one of the smallest mammals of the world with head and body lenght of just 10 cm showing up in the evening. |
