Batanta is one of the four major islands in the

Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago located off the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia's Southwest Papua province. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding ...

Southwest Papua Southwest Papua ( id, Papua Barat Daya) is a province of Indonesia, and is a fraction of Western New Guinea. Despite being named southwest, it is a misnomer and this province is actually located in the northwest edge of Papua. The area that belo ...

province,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Its area is 453 km² and its highest point is 1184 m. The

Pitt Strait Pitt Strait is a channel, wide, separating Chatham Island and Pitt Island, the two largest islands in New Zealand's Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pac ...

separates it from Salawati, while the Dampier Strait separates it from

Waigeo Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands archipelago, between Halmahera and about to the north-wes ...

. Dampier Strait is named for the English explorer

William Dampier William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumna ...

. In 1759 Captain William Wilson sailing in the

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

''Pitt'' navigated these waters and named the channel between Batanta and Salawati Pitt Strait, after his vessel.

History

Islam first arrived in the Raja Ampat archipelago in the 15th century due to political and economic contacts with the Bacan Sultanate.Wanggai, Toni V. M. (2008)
Rekonstruki sejarah umat Islam di tanna Papua
econstruction of the History of lslam in Papua Syariff Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2022-03-13. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Sultante of Tidore had close economic ties with the island. During this period, Islam became firmly established and local chiefs had begun adopting Islam.Slama, Martin (2015),
Papua as an Islamic Frontier: Preaching in 'the Jungle' and the Multiplicity of Spatio-Temporal Hierarchisations", ''From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities, Mobilities and Religiosities''
ANU Press, pp. 243–270,

Fauna

The following reptile, mammal and bird species are found on the island: * Blue-spotted tree monitor (''Varanus macraei'') * Crocodile Monitor (''Varanus salvadorii'') *

Wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

(''Sus scrofa'') (prehistorically introduced) *

Black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

(''Rattus rattus'') (uncertain; introduced) * Wilson's bird-of-paradise (''Cicinnurus respublica'') * ''

Myoictis wallacei Wallace's dasyure (''Myoictis wallacei'') or Wallace's three-striped dasyure is a member of the order Dasyuromorphia. This marsupial carnivore is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Specifically, it is found on the Aru Islands of the Maluku ...

'' (uncertain) * '' Echymipera kalubu'' (uncertain) * '' Phalanger orientalis'' * '' Spilocuscus maculatus'' * ''

Paramelomys platyops The lowland mosaic-tailed rat (''Paramelomys platyops'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), offic ...

'' * ''

Dobsonia beauforti Beaufort's naked-backed fruit bat (''Dobsonia beauforti'') is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. It roosts in caves. Taxonomy and etymology Beaufort's naked-backed fruit bat was described as a new species in 1975 by W. Bergmans. T ...

'' * '' Dobsonia magna'' * '' Macroglossus minimus'' * '' Nyctimene albiventer (Common tube-nosed fruit bat)'' * ''

Pteropus conspicillatus The spectacled flying fox (''Pteropus conspicillatus''), also known as the spectacled fruit bat, is a megabat that lives in Australia's north-eastern regions of Queensland. It is also found in New Guinea and on the offshore islands including Wood ...

'' * '' Rousettus amplexicaudatus'' * ''

Syconycteris australis The common blossom bat (''Syconycteris australis'') also known as the southern blossom bat or Queensland blossom bat, is a megabat in the family Pteropodidae. The common blossom bat feeds mostly on nectar and pollen rather than fruit. It is one o ...

'' * '' Emballonura nigrescens'' * '' Hipposideros cervinus'' * '' Hipposideros diadema'' * '' Hipposideros maggietaylorae'' * ''

Rhinolophus euryotis The broad-eared horseshoe bat (''Rhinolophus euryotis'') is a species of bat in the family Rhinolophidae. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. References Rhinolophidae Bats of Oceania Bats of Indonesia Mammals of Papua Ne ...

'' * '' Miniopterus australis'' * ''

Myotis adversus The large-footed bat, large-footed mouse-eared bat, or large-footed myotis (''Myotis adversus'') is a species of vesper bat (family Vespertilionidae). It can be found in the following countries: Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, ...

'' (uncertain) * ''

Pipistrellus papuanus The lesser Papuan pipistrelle (''Pipistrellus papuanus'') is a species of vesper bat. It can be found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the In ...

References

Raja Ampat Islands {{SwPapua-geo-stub