TIMOR-LESTE REPTILE & AMPHIBIAN SURVEY
PHASE IV: ARRIVAL IN DILI cont.

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For anyone unfamiliar with Timor-Leste (aka East Timor), the country comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, located in the southeastern Malay Archipelago to the northwest of Western Australia. Timor-Leste also includes Ataúro Island to the north, the tiny eastern island of Jaco, and an exclave called Oecusse (sometimes spelt Oecussi) on the northern coast of Indonesian West Timor.

Timor-Leste comprises the eastern half of Timor island, the Oecusse exclave in Indonesian West Timor, and both Ataúaro and Jaco Islands to north and east respectively.

A former Portuguese colony, East Timor received independence in 1975 but was almost immediately annexed by Indonesia. A bloody struggle for independence followed, resulting in over 150,000 Timorese killed, but in 1999 the East Timorese voted the Indonesians out of their country. The UN administered East Timor, aided by an international INTERFET peace-keeping force, from 1999 until 2002 when Timor-Leste became the first new country of the 21st Century. A great deal more history can be found here.

Due to continual strife and conflict, and mismanagement, going back may decades, biological surveys of the island of Timor, and in particular the country now known as Timor-Leste, have been few and far between. Hence the Victor Valley College team is only now conducting the first ever comprehensive herpetological (reptile and amphibian) survey of the country. We are now up to Phase IV with over 32 species recorded and around 16 new species to describe. Phases I-III can be found here.