Lost world

摘要

Cast off from Australia more than 80 million years ago. New Caledonia came to rest, isolated, in the Pacific Ocean, where it spawned an extraordinary biota all its own. JONAS TEIN MOVES as though bitten. He jumps on the spot and tenses as he leans forward, binoculars to his eyes. Something has caught the conservationist's attention. "Over there," he murmurs, gesturing ahead. I can barely hear him over the roar of wind and the rhythmic beat of Kaneka music emanating from his car behind us. I squint, shielding my eyes from the sun, but I see nothing of note on the tree-lined ridge 50m below. "There, there," he urges, and for a moment I see it - a brown blur in the scrub. "Deer," he spits out with disdain. "I wish I had a gun."