The mammalian fauna of Bouganville Island, Solomons Group
Abstract
Although Bougainville Island is essentially a zoo-geographical part of the Solomons, annexation by Germany and subsequent transfer under mandate to Australia has rather inaptly linked it politically as well as postally with the more distant Bismarck Archipelago, so that it is sometimes regarded as being an intermediate or buffer island between those groups. Actually, more than one hundred miles of open ocean separate Bougainville from New Ireland, whereas to the south only the twenty-six odd miles of Bougainville Strait, obstructed by numerous islands, separates it from the large island of Choiseul, a distance also scarcely exceeded between any of the larger islands of the group. Considerable faunistic interest therefore attaches to Bougainville as a base of deployment for the mammals found within the Solomons-a fact which, coupled with . ts size and rugged nature, accounts for the relatively rich variety of mammals secured there recently for the Australian Museum by the Reverend J. B. Poncelet, S.M., of the Catholic Mission at Buin, South Bougainville. Largest of the group, discovered by Mendana in 1567, the island is about one hundred and ten miles long and from twenty to thirty-five miles wide, with a volcano erupting at intervals from a 6,000 ft. peak of the mountain range, which extends throughout its length and attains in Mount Balbi the astonishing altitude of 10,171 feet. ... [etc.]
