The Wondiboy Peninsula, also known as the Wondiwoi, Wandammen (spelled locally Wandamen), Wondama, or in old sources Mandamy is a mountainous

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

Wondama Bay Regency Teluk Wondama Regency or Wondama Bay Regency (; Dutch: ''Regentschap Wondammen-baai'') is a regency of West Papua province of Indonesia. It covers a land area of 4,844.035 km2, and had a population of 26,321 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Stat ...

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region ...

. It extends northwards from the

Bird's Neck Isthmus The Bird's Neck Isthmus is an isthmus in western New Guinea. It connects the main mass of the island to its two large western peninsulas, the Bird's Head Peninsula, also known as the Vogelkop or Doberai Peninsula, and the Bomberai Peninsula. The ...

into

Cenderawasih Bay Cenderawasih Bay (, "Bird of Paradise Bay"), also known as Sarera Bay () and formerly Geelvink Bay (), is a large bay in northern Province of Papua, Central Papua and West Papua, New Guinea, Indonesia. Geography ''Cenderawasih Bay'' is a lar ...

, and is composed administratively of the Rasiei, Wondiboy, Wasior and Teluk Duairi Districts (''kecamatan'') within the regency. At the northern end of the peninsula the land breaks up into a series of islands which form Roon District, of which the largest is Roon Island. Separate from the

New Guinea Highlands The New Guinea Highlands, also known as the Central Range or Central Cordillera, is a long chain of mountain ranges on the island of New Guinea, including the island's highest peak, Puncak Jaya, Indonesia, , the highest mountain in Oceania. The r ...

, the mountain chain is northwest of the Kobowre Mountains summiting in

Dogiyai Regency Dogiyai Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in the Indonesian province of Central Papua. The Regency was created on 4 January 2008 from what had previously been the southern districts of Nabire Regency. It covers an area of 7,052.92 ...

. These densely forested mountains run north and south along the spine of the peninsula, rising from the shore up to 2,250 metres elevation, and extending southwards into the Bird's Neck Isthmus.Diamond, Jared M. and Bishop, K. David. (2015). Avifaunas of the Kumawa and Fakfak Mountains, Indonesian New Guinea. ''Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club'', Volume 135, Issue 4, 2015, pp. 292--336. The eastern slope of the mountains is steeper than the western slope, and constitutes a thin coastal strip along the east coast of the peninsula which actually forms Teluk Umar District within

Nabire Regency Nabire Regency is one of the regencies (''kabupaten'') in the Indonesian province of Central Papua. It covers an area of 12,075.00 km2, and had a population of 129,893 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 169,136 at the 2020 ...

Central Papua Central Papua, officially the Central Papua Province () is an Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province located in the central region of Western New Guinea. It was formally established on 25 July 2022 from the former eight western regencies of ...

Province.

Wildlife

Lowland rain forest covers the lower slopes of the range, with montane rain forest at higher elevations. Lowland forests extend from sea level to approximately 1000 metres elevation. Lower montane forests are dominated by ''

Castanopsis acuminatissima ''Castanopsis acuminatissima'' is an evergreen tree native to Southeast Asia and New Guinea. It is known by a variety of common names over its range, including white oak, New Guinea oak, Papua New Guinea oak, ''ki riung, ko-duai, ko-soi, ko-mat, ...

'' and species of

laurels ''Laurus nobilis'' is an aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub with green, glabrous (smooth) leaves. It is in the flowering plant family Lauraceae. According to Flora Cretica (Kleinsteuber Books, 2024, ISBN 978-3-9818110-5-6) the stem can be 1 ...

. Southern beech (''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere, found across southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guin ...

'' spp.) is predominant in upper

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

s, and the trees are often covered in

moss Mosses are small, non-vascular plant, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic phylum, division Bryophyta (, ) ''sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryo ...

es and other

epiphytes An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

.BirdLife International (2024
Endemic Bird Areas factsheet: West Papuan highlands
Retrieved 3 March 2024. Most of the Peninsula is covered by Pegunungan Wondiboy Nature Reserve, which covers an area of .

Etymology

The name ''Wandamen'' or ''Wondama'' comes from the

Austronesian Austronesian may refer to: *The Austronesian languages *The historical Austronesian peoples The Austronesian people, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples who have settled in Taiwan, maritime Sout ...

Wamesa language Wamesa is an Austronesian language of Indonesian New Guinea, spoken across the neck of the Doberai Peninsula or Bird's Head. There are currently 5,000–8,000 speakers. While it was historically used as a lingua franca, it is currently considered ...

word ''Won'' meaning "people" and ''Dama'' meaning "come", so combined the word means, "the place where people come". Meanwhile ''Mandamy'' or ''Mandama'' comes from the

Biak language Biak ( or 'Biak language'; or 'our language'; Indonesian: ), also known as Biak-Numfor, Noefoor, Mafoor, Mefoor, Nufoor, Mafoorsch, Myfoorsch and Noefoorsch, is an Austronesian language of the South Halmahera-West New Guinea subgroup of the Ea ...

with the same meaning.

References

{{Mountain ranges of New Guinea Landforms of West Papua (province) Protected areas of Western New Guinea Vogelkop montane rain forests