The Wondiboy Peninsula, also known as the Wondiwoi, Wandammen (spelled locally Wandamen), Wondama, or in old sources Mandamy is a mountainous peninsula in Wondama Bay Regency, Western New Guinea. 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. Th ...

into Cenderawasih Bay. The 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. Roon Island lies off the north end of the peninsula. 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. Southern beech ('' Nothofagus'' spp.) is predominant in upper montane forests, and the trees are often covered in mosses and other epiphytes.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 peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, M ...

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 (''wós Vyak'' or "Biak language"; ''wós kovedi'' or "our language"; Indonesian: ''bahasa Biak''), also known as Biak-Numfor, Noefoor, Mafoor, Mefoor, Nufoor, Mafoorsch, Myfoorsch and Noefoorsch, is an Austronesian language of the South H ...

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