A New Age of Discovery Is Happening Right Now in the Remote Forests of Suriname
Today’s explorers and scientists are identifying new species at a rate that would’ve amazed Charles Darwin
By Richard Conniff
Smithsonian Magazine
March 2017
It’s sunset on an unnamed mountain, in an unexplored corner of one of the greenest countries on earth. We’ve arrived by helicopter across a rumpled landscape of swamps and hills, and it feels as if we’re the first humans ever to pass the night here.
Now five of us sit on a remote ridge of Suriname’s Grensgebergte Mountains, watching the mist settle over forested hills beyond forested hills, along the border with Brazil. A pair of macaws fly below us, showing off their brilliant colors. A hummingbird whips past, hovers briefly to sip nectar from a costus flower, and vanishes again into the dusk.
“What the hell was that?” cries Brian O’Shea, an ornithologist from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. “That’s not a great-billed hermit. That’s something totally different.” His head swivels toward a fellow birder. “Did you see how long the tail was? We have to investigate that.”
Somewhere out along the ridge, a flock of marbled wood quail call like a cuckoo clock striking the hour. The scrim of daytime sky gives way to a bright spangle of stars. The birders go off in search of other bird songs, and the herpetologists head out to chase frogs into the night.
More:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-age-discovery-happening-right-now-forests-suriname-180962118/