Mount Shungol (also known as Mount Chungol) is an

ultra-prominent summit An ultra-prominent peak, or ultra for short, is a mountain summit with a topographic prominence of or more; it is also called a P1500. The prominence of a peak is the minimum height of climb to the summit on any route from a higher peak, or fro ...

(ranked number 31) to the west of

Lae Lae (, , later ) is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River on the northern coast of Huon Gulf. It is at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is ...

, in

Morobe Province Morobe is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital and largest city is Lae. The province covers 33,705 km2, with a population of 674,810 (2011 census), and since the division of Southern Highlands Province ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. It is in the Herzog Mountain Range and has an elevation of . The Buang people claim ownership to the top of Mount Shungol.

Locale

Dambi Peak is located to the South West, Snake River along the South East base, Aria and Tuoima Creeks to the North West and Wampit River to the West. Omalia and Bupa Missions are West of Mount Shungol while Wago Mission is to the East.

Endemic fauna

Albericus frog

A new species of '' Albericus'' from Mt. Shungol has been discovered and inhabits lowland hill forest from the slopes of Mt. Shungol. ''Albericus'' is a genus of

microhylid The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family of frogs. The 683 species are in 57 genera and 11 subfamilies. Evolution A molecular phylogenetic study by van der Meijden, et al. (2007) has estima ...

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...

s endemic to

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. These are small frogs with maximum body length around 27 mm. The genus name ''Albericus'' is the Latin form of

Alberich In German heroic legend, Alberich () is a dwarf. He features most prominently in the poems ''Nibelungenlied'' and '' Ortnit''. He also features in the Old Norse collection of German legends called the Thidreksaga under the name Alfrikr. His na ...

, shape-shifting dwarf in the epic poem ''

Nibelungenlied The (, or ; or ), translated as ''The Song of the Nibelungs'', is an epic poetry, epic poem written around 1200 in Middle High German. Its anonymous poet was likely from the region of Passau. The is based on an oral tradition of Germanic hero ...

''.

Cophixalus frog

The ''Cophixalus albolineatus'' whose habitat is the northwestern slope of Mount Shungol. Cophixalus (rainforest frogs or nursery frogs) is a genus of microhylid frogs. These are arboreal species with expanded toe-pads, endemic to Moluccan Islands, New Guinea and northeastern Queensland, Australia.

Citrogramma

Citrogramma ''Citrogramma'' is a genus of hoverflies. Species *'' C. amarilla'' Mengual, 2012 *'' C. arisanicum'' (Shiraki, 1930) *'' C. asombrosum'' Mengual, 2012 *'' C. australe'' Thompson, 2012 *'' C. bicornutum'' Vockeroth, 1969 *'' C. chola'' Ghorpadé ...

is a genus of

hoverfly Hoverflies, also called flower flies or syrphids, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the l ...

of the insect family Syrphidae whose habitat is on Mount Shungol.

Solanum

Solanum ''Solanum'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant (aubergine, brinjal). It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solana ...

is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, including two food crops of the highest economic importance, the potato and the tomato. Hartleya Sleum (Stemonur.) is only known from Mount Shungol.

Birds-of-Paradise

Many species of Birds-of-Paradise are endemic to the area. Among these is the

brown sicklebill The brown sicklebill (''Epimachus meyeri'') is a species of bird-of-paradise that is found in the mountain forests of New Guinea. Its appearance resembles the closely related and larger black sicklebill. In areas where these two large sicklebills ...

. The

(''Epimachus meyeri'') is a dark blue and green bird-of-paradise with highly iridescent plumages, a sickle-shaped bill, pale blue iris and brown underparts. Mount Shungol and Mount Missim (above the towns of

Wau Wau may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Papua New Guinea * Wau, Papua New Guinea * Wau Airport (Papua New Guinea) * Wau Rural LLG, (local level government) South Sudan * Wau State, South Sudan * Wau, South Sudan, city * Wau railway s ...

and

Bulolo Bulolo is a town in Wau-Bulolo Urban LLG, Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea. It was once an important gold dredging centre in the former Territory of New Guinea,endemism Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

for many bird subspecies.

References

External links

"Mount Shungol, Papua New Guinea" on Peakbagger
{{Lae Shungol Lae