Wasur National Park is located in Merauke District, Papua Province and is one of Papua’s natural beauty that has a rare diversity of flora and fauna. This national park is unique and has a very important role for the life of the rare species of flora and fauna. One of the uniqueness is to save the charm of natural beauty that is very natural and has authenticity.
This national park is one of the largest wetlands in Papua, Indonesia, even in Asia. This area has an area of up to 413,800 hectares and 70% of the national park consists of savanna, while other vegetation is swamp forests, coastal forests, bamboo forests, grasslands and sago forests.
Biodiversity in this area makes Wasur National Park called as the “Serengeti Papua”. The results from World Wildlife Reserve Researcher (WWF) found around 390 species of birds are located in the area of this national park, so this area became the richest bird species in Papua and even in Indonesia. Not only that, there are also 80 species of mammals and 20 of them are endemic animals.
Dozens of birds species such as beach birds, cranes and swamp ducks also breed here. The area is also often used as a stopover place of migrating junai birds from northern Australia. For the habitat in the savanna, the species of maleo birds, parrots, cockatoos and cendrawasih has been breeding here.
The types of animals that h in Wasur National Park are deer, kangaroos, cenderawasih birds, cassowary birds as well as species of cockatoos and parrots.
The river in this national park become breeding place of snapper fish and Arowana. Various types of plants such as mangrove trees, bamboo, and sago thrive in this region. The plants can eventually be utilized by the surrounding community to meet their living needs. When it is near sunset, the deer going out of the nest to drink around the river.
The unique thing that can be found in this area is the termite house or ant house (Musamus) with the height that can reach 5 meters above ground level. In this area, Musamus is not an ant house but a termite house. The termite house is made up of dry grass and soil. Termite saliva serves as an adhesive material that makes the house very sturdy and strong, even able to withstand the heavy burden of adult humans while climbing on it.
The termite colony living in the Musamus is not a termite destroyer. These termites are not intrusive bugs and generally, they live far from the local community. This type of termites is known to be independent and build their own house without damaging human settlements.
Musamus has a cone-shaped and towers upward from the ground that resembles a stalagmite in the caves. The surface of the termite house has a grooved texture and is reddish-brown like the color of the soil around it.
When the Musamus is opened up into the part of the cavity, it will be seen a room that looks like complicated hallways. The hallway serves as a residence of termites as well as ventilation cavities that keep the temperature inside Musamus stays warm. The existence of these alleys makes Musamus is safe to live in termite colonies. Musamus only found in some areas of the world, one of that is in Wasur National Park, Papua.
There is savanna field in this national park area that containing hundreds of Musamus on it. This national park has uniqueness and richness of abundant biodiversity. The existence of this biodiversity is highly dependent on the protection of the area.
Protection of the Wasur National Park area should be supported by all parties, whether by the government, local people, or visiting tourists. Do not let human activities can damage the uniqueness and biodiversity and ecosystems that exist in the area of Wasur National Park.
