PNG Fact of the Day (6) - Wildlife

Just so everyone knows, there are no monkeys, elephants, tigers, kangaroos, or any other type of interesting jungle animals in Papua New Guinea. How boring, I know. I always hoped my kids would be able to have a little baby monkey for a pet, but no such luck in PNG.

Pretty much the only exotic wildlife in PNG is the tree kangaroo, which is kind of a cross between a kangaroo and a koala. I've heard they make good pets, so maybe we'll have one someday.

Tree kangaroo

There are also lots of wild pigs (which many of the tribal groups hunt for meat), large fruit bats, massive snakes, and flying squirrels. There's also some flightless birds called cassowaries, which kind of look like little emus.

A pretty big snake

And of course, there are loads of beautiful birds... although they don't really look so beautiful early in the morning when they start making noise right outside your window. Some of them are pretty loud!