IN the thick and dense forest on a hilltop of Peleng Island, Baggai Islands regency, Central Sulawesi, two men were working their way into the undergrowth.

All of a sudden, their eyes fell on a brownish bird that was pecking at the ground. The men, both biologists, whispered to each other immediately: “It’s a Banggai crow.”

The brief encounter occurred 16 years ago in 1991 when both men—Yunus Masala and Lefrendi Pesik—were hiking up