Batanta is one of the four major islands in the

Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago located off the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia's Southwest Papua province. It comprises over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding ...

Southwest Papua Southwest Papua ( id, Papua Barat Daya) is a province of Indonesia, and is a fraction of Western New Guinea. Despite being named southwest, it is a misnomer and this province is actually located in the northwest edge of Papua. The area that belo ...

province,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. Its area is 453 km² and its highest point is 1184 m. The

Pitt Strait Pitt Strait is a channel, wide, separating Chatham Island and Pitt Island, the two largest islands in New Zealand's Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pac ...

separates it from

Salawati Salawati is one of the four major islands in the Raja Ampat Islands in Southwest Papua (formerly West Papua), Indonesia. Its area is 1,623 km2. Salawati is separated from New Guinea to the southeast by the Sele Strait (a.k.a. Galowa Strai ...

, while the Dampier Strait separates it from

Waigeo Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago loc ...

. Dampier Strait is named for the English explorer

William Dampier William Dampier (baptised 5 September 1651; died March 1715) was an English explorer, pirate, privateer, navigator, and naturalist who became the first Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia, and the first person to circumnav ...

. In 1759 Captain William Wilson sailing in the

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

''Pitt'' navigated these waters and named the channel between Batanta and Salawati Pitt Strait, after his vessel.

History

Islam first arrived in the Raja Ampat archipelago in the 15th century due to political and economic contacts with the

Bacan Sultanate The Sultanate of Bacan (كسلطانن باچن) was a state in Maluku Islands, present-day Indonesia that arose with the expansion of the spice trade in late medieval times. It mainly consisted of the Bacan Islands (Bacan, Kasiruta, Mandioli, etc ...

.Wanggai, Toni V. M. (2008)
Rekonstruki sejarah umat Islam di tanna Papua
econstruction of the History of lslam in Papua Syariff Hidayatullah State Islamic University Jakarta (in Indonesian). Retrieved 2022-03-13. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Sultante of Tidore had close economic ties with the island. During this period, Islam became firmly established and local chiefs had begun adopting Islam.Slama, Martin (2015),
Papua as an Islamic Frontier: Preaching in 'the Jungle' and the Multiplicity of Spatio-Temporal Hierarchisations", ''From 'Stone-Age' to 'Real-Time': Exploring Papuan Temporalities, Mobilities and Religiosities''
ANU Press, pp. 243–270,

Fauna

The following reptile, mammal and bird species are found on the island: *

Blue-spotted tree monitor ''Varanus macraei'', the blue-spotted tree monitor or blue tree monitor, is a species of monitor lizard found on the island of Batanta in Indonesia. It is named after herpetologist Duncan R. MacRae, founder of the reptile park Rimba on Bali. G ...

(''Varanus macraei'') *

Crocodile Monitor ''Varanus salvadorii'', also known as the crocodile monitor, Papuan monitor and Salvadori's monitor, is a species of monitor lizard endemic to New Guinea. It is the largest monitor lizard known from New Guinea, and is one of the longest lizard ...

(''Varanus salvadorii'') *

Wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

(''Sus scrofa'') (prehistorically introduced) *

Black rat The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...

(''Rattus rattus'') (uncertain; introduced) *

Wilson's bird-of-paradise Wilson's bird-of-paradise (''Cicinnurus respublica'') is a species of passerine bird of the family Paradisaeidae. The first footage of the Wilson's bird-of-paradise ever to be filmed was recorded in 1996 by David Attenborough for the BBC document ...

(''Cicinnurus respublica'') * '' Myoictis wallacei'' (uncertain) * ''

Echymipera kalubu The common echymipera (''Echymipera kalubu''), or common spiny bandicoot, is a bandicoot. It is long-snouted even by bandicoot standards. The upper parts are a coarse reddish-brown, flecked with spiny buff and black hairs. The tail is short and a ...

'' (uncertain) * ''

Phalanger orientalis The northern common cuscus (''Phalanger orientalis''), also known as the gray cuscus, is a species of marsupial in the family Phalangeridae native to northern New Guinea and adjacent smaller islands, but is now also found in the Bismarck Archipel ...

'' * ''

Spilocuscus maculatus The common spotted cuscus (''Spilocuscus maculatus''), also known as the white cuscus, is a cuscus, a marsupial that lives in the Cape York region of Australia, New Guinea, and nearby smaller islands. Names It is known as aklang or gabi in the ...

'' * ''

Paramelomys platyops The lowland mosaic-tailed rat (''Paramelomys platyops'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), offic ...

'' * '' Dobsonia beauforti'' * ''

Dobsonia magna The New Guinea naked-backed fruit bat (''Dobsonia magna'' or ''Dobsonia moluccensis magna'') is a species of megabat native to Papua New Guinea and the Indonesian islands of Waigeo, Yapen, Batanta, and Misool Misool, formerly spelled Mysol (D ...

'' * ''

Macroglossus minimus The long-tongued nectar bat (''Macroglossus minimus''), also known as the northern blossom bat, honey nectar bat, least blossom-bat, dagger-toothed long-nosed fruit bat, and lesser long-tongued fruit bat, is a species of megabat. ''M. minimus'' is ...

'' * ''

Nyctimene albiventer The common tube-nosed fruit bat (''Nyctimene albiventer'') is a species of megabat in the family Pteropodidae. It is found at islands north of Australia, and in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. Taxonomy Th ...

(Common tube-nosed fruit bat)'' * '' Pteropus conspicillatus'' * ''

Rousettus amplexicaudatus Geoffroy's rousette (''Rousettus amplexicaudatus'') is a species of megabat or Old World fruit bats. It is one of ten species in the genus ''Rousettus''. Distribution Geoffroy's rousette occurs throughout Southeast Asia and in the Malesia region ...

'' * ''

Syconycteris australis The common blossom bat (''Syconycteris australis'') also known as the southern blossom bat or Queensland blossom bat, is a megabat in the family Pteropodidae. The common blossom bat feeds mostly on nectar and pollen rather than fruit. It is one o ...

'' * ''

Emballonura nigrescens ''Emballonura'' (meaning: Erect tail) is a genus of sac-winged bats in the family Emballonuridae. It contains these species: * Small Asian sheath-tailed bat (''E. alecto'') * Beccari's sheath-tailed bat (''E. beccarii'') * Large-eared sheath-t ...

'' * ''

Hipposideros cervinus The fawn leaf-nosed bat (''Hipposideros cervinus'') is a species of bat in the family Hipposideridae found in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vanuatu. Taxonomy The species was first described by John Gould in his Mammals of ...

'' * ''

Hipposideros diadema ''Hipposideros'' is one of the most diverse genera of bats, with more than 70 species. They are collectively called roundleaf bats after the shape of their nasal ornament. It is the type genus of the family Hipposideridae. It is divided into spe ...

'' * '' Hipposideros maggietaylorae'' * '' Rhinolophus euryotis'' * ''

Miniopterus australis The little bent-wing bat or little long-fingered bat (''Miniopterus australis'') is a species of vesper bat in the family Miniopteridae. It is found in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vanuatu. Taxonomy The species was first describ ...

'' * ''

Myotis adversus The large-footed bat, large-footed mouse-eared bat, or large-footed myotis (''Myotis adversus'') is a species of vesper bat (family Vespertilionidae). It can be found in the following countries: Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, ...

'' (uncertain) * '' Pipistrellus papuanus''

References

Raja Ampat Islands {{SwPapua-geo-stub