Port Moresby Nature Park

Bird feathers a Cultural Heritage

Since the release of its news by the Port Moresby Nature Park, the Ragianna Bird of Paradise was born on 27 June this year, its gender is still yet to be identified, and this could take up to 5 years for the gender reveal.

The Ragianna Bird of Paradise is an omnivore that eats a wide range of foods that includes fruits, berries, insects, frogs and small reptiles, and because they are not able to digest seeds, they disperse these through their environment.

When the males reach full maturity, they grow beautiful plume feathers of high traditional value in PNG, for costumes.

Everyday People: Gemma Maraiapo

Inspired by the famous Gulf phrase of ‘Yu yet kam na lukim’, one would have to spend merely a minute with Gemma to understand why the Park looks so presentable daily as it is in her nature to ensure everything is set and ready for guests.

Gemma is no new face to the Tourism & Hospitality Industry. Since 1992 when she started her first job with the Granville Hotel in Port Moresby as a Housekeeping staff, she had never strayed from the field, which to date sees her clocking in 29 years of service in Housekeeping within the Tourism & Hospitality Industry.

Park supports STEM Curriculum

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics and refers to any subjects that fall under these four disciplines

The curriculum includes:

Nature Park Interns

Chilla Sine, Philemon Varihombui and Dave Laki are all final year students in Tourism & Hospitality at UPNG who undertook an eight-week internship program as part of their practical assessment.

The students were under rotational shifts throughout their tenure with the Nature Park, enabling them to gain such knowledge and hands-on experience in the various departments within a tourism organization.

Fairies Leave Park

Visitors of the Park, majority of them being families with children as young as a year-old could be seen with their parents enjoying the various activities such as fairy face-painting, a bouncy castle and a mystery puzzle activity.

The Lae Biscuit Mystery of the Liklik Toti was a huge crowd drawer as the fairy activity had a weekly draw of prizes with 20 lucky weekly winners who won prizes sponsored by the event’s major sponsor.

Park gears up for Massive Giveaways

The business houses supporting the Park’s program will be gifting eight winners with prizes consisting of a Round Trip with PNG Air, a night’s accommodation at Holiday Inn Suites and most recently, Airways Hotel has jumped on board to sponsor a lunch buffet.

Airways Hotel PR and Sales Executive Mary Natera presented the vouchers to the Park’s Marketing Manager Denise Girey. 

The Live Draw of the Mystery of the Liklik Toti Fairy Challenge will be held at 3pm this Sunday 8th August at the Park.

Park Wins Int’l Awards

The award was announced at the Zoo and Aquarium Association of Australasia’s (ZAA) bi-annual Gala Awards event.

The winning categories were ‘Exhibit Design – Small Scale Development’ for the Park’s construction of its Reptile Haus, the first of its kind in PNG, and ‘Community Engagement Award’ for ‘Snaketastic’, a community event that was focused on education initiatives about snakes.

Lasalle Tech takes part in ecotourism program

The students were privileged to learn about the operations of the Park as it has a reputation as a leading international tourist attraction in PNG as an advocate for ecotourism.  

Nature Park’s Education Manager, Shirley Mogi said: “Papua New Guinea is a country reach in biodiversity. As while it occupies only a per cent in landmass of the Earth’s surface, 7 per cent of the World’s Biodiversity is found here in Papua New Guinea.”

Breeding Raggiana BOP A Success

The success comes as part of ongoing breeding programs carried out by the Park. In 2018, the Park completed the Plumes of Paradise precinct, displaying eight Bird of Paradise species.

Since then, the Park has been focused on breeding the majority of these species.

In early June this year, the male Raggiana Bird of Paradise was seen displaying and showing off his beautiful plumage to the female. The female soon took interest in the male and started constructing a nest, incubating a single egg.

Trans Pacific Support Nature Park

Trans Pacific Assurance CEO, Philip Tolley said the company is in full support of the Park’s mission and is happy to lend a helping hand with its operations where needed.