Night Walk in the Rainforest

I like to conduct night walk in the rainforest when I guide tourists. Usually the activity is carried out after dinner. There are a lot of interesting things that we can see while exploring the trunk of trees or the leaves of shrub plants that grow on both sides of the paths that we walk through.

Russian tourists were having night walk tour in Susnguakti forest guided by Charles Roring and a local villager

Insects - Crickets, snout beetle, assassin beetle, tiger beetle, spider, leaf insect, stick insect, cicada, fire flies, and moth, come out of their hiding places at night. We can come very close to them to take pictures. I use a Canon 200D with short lens or a Fujifilm XQ2  pocket camera to take pictures of these unique insects.
Glowing Mushroom - They are easily seen among bamboo plants. Bamboo trunks that have dried, died, and fallen to the ground will decay gradually. During rainy season, a lot of mushrooms grow on them. They glow at nights. Their sizes are small but they look nice. We need to set our shooting mode to macro in order to make pictures of them. Shooting in low-light condition is quite challenging. We need to adjust the settings of our camera several times to  get better pictures of the green glowing mushrooms.

Kuskus in Susnguakti forest of Manokwari

Possum - Kuskus is the local name of this marsupial animal. In Susnguakti forest of Manokwari regency, a local villager immitates the sounds of female cuscus to attract the male one. He sometimes does the calls in several locations to see whether there is kuskus in the surrounding trees. Local villagers eat the meat of kuskus. That's the reason why this animal is getting more difficult to see. In Arfak range, the mating season of kuskus is around February to March.
Reptiles - Small eyed ikaheka snake, Papua forest dragon, ground skink, forest lizards can sometimes be seen when we do night walk. Because the ikaheka snake is very poisonous, for safety reasons, we need to wear boots and be in safe distance when we see it. Susnguakti forest of Manokwari is one of the best locations in West Papua of Indonesia for tourists who like herping.

Hooded Pitta

Red-bellied Pitta in Susnguakti forest of Manokwari

Birds - From my personal experience of conducting night walk in the forest, I have seen various species of birds including Spot-winged Monarch, King Bird of Paradise, Red-bellied Pitta (now called Papuan Pitta), Hooded Pitta, and Papuan Frogmouth.
If you are interested in visiting West Papua's rainforest to see its wildlife, and want me to organize your tour, please, contact me by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp to: +6281332245180.
You need to fly from your country to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. After that you need to take a domestic flight to Manokwari city. I can meet you at the airport and then organize your tour to the forest.
Camping and Watching Wild Animals in Arfak mountains
Wildlife Tour in Susnguakti Forest