14/05/2026
Alfred Russel Wallace setting foot in Buleleng, North Bali in June 1856.
Wallace was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer and writer best known for independently developing the theory of evolution through natural selection alongside Charles Darwin. Born in 1823, Wallace spent many years exploring the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago, collecting thousands of animal specimens and studying the distribution of wildlife.
During his travels through Indonesia, including Bali and Lombok, he identified a sharp difference between Asian and Australian animal species. This discovery became known as the “Wallace Line,” one of the most important concepts in biogeography.
In 1858, while suffering from malaria on the island of Ternate, Wallace wrote an essay explaining natural selection and sent it to Darwin. The paper shocked Darwin because it closely matched his own unpublished ideas. Their theories were jointly presented in London that same year.
Wallace also wrote the famous book The Malay Archipelago, combining science, adventure and observations of local cultures and nature. Today, he is remembered as one of history’s greatest explorers and a pioneer of evolutionary science and biodiversity research.
