The northern common cuscus (''Phalanger orientalis''), also known as the gray cuscus, is a species of
marsupial
Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in ...
in the family
Phalangeridae
The Phalangeridae are a family of mostly nocturnal marsupials native to Australia, New Guinea, and Eastern Indonesia, including the cuscuses, brushtail possums, and their close relatives. Considered a type of possum, most species are arboreal, ...
native to northern
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
and adjacent smaller islands, but is now also found in the
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
History
The first inhabitants o ...
, southeast and central
Moluccas
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...
, the
Solomons, and
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, ...
, where it is believed to have been
introduced in prehistoric times from
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...
.
It was formerly considered
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...
with the
allopatric
Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...
''
P. intercastellanus'' and ''
P. mimicus''.
It is hunted for human consumption in New Guinea.
Names
It is known as ''laku ita'' in the
Naueti language
Naueti (also written as Nauoti, Nauete and Nauweti but ultimately from Naueti nau eti 'now') is an Austronesian language spoken by 15,045 (census 2010) in the subdistricts of Uato-Lari, Uatucarbau and Baguia in southeastern East Timor. 1,062 ...
or ''meda'' in the
Tetum Terik Tetum language
, nativename=Tetun
, states= Indonesia East Timor
, speakers=, mostly in Indonesia
, date=2010–2011
, ref=e18
, speakers2=50,000 L2-speakers in Indonesia and East Timor
, familycolor=Austronesian
, fam2=Malayo-Polynesian
, fam3= Central–East ...
of
Timor-Leste.
Habitat
The northern common cuscus normally inhabits disturbed habitats. These would include secondary forest, plantations, and gardens. This species is also found in primary tropical forests.
[Leary, T., Singadan, R., Menzies, J., Helgen, K., Wright, D., Allison, A., Hamilton, S., Salas, L. & Dickman, C. 2008. Phalanger orientalis. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. www.iucnredlist.org.] While living in the arboreal environments, hunters in the area believe that the tree hollows are the preferred den site of the cuscus. Local villagers reported that the northern common cuscus can be found in any substantially forested areas from coastal monsoon rainforest and gallery forest to the remnant montane rainforest.
Distribution
The Northern common cuscus inhabits the islands of
Timor
Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is divided between the sovereign states of East Timor on the eastern part and Indonesia on the western part. The Indonesian part, ...
, specifically
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 Gui ...
and
Timor-Leste, Wetar and Leti (both to Indonesia) through the Kai Islands and a number of the Moluccan Islands of Indonesia (including Ambon, Buru, and Seram); it is also found on the islands of Misool, Waigeo, Batanta, and Salawati (all Indonesia), and ranges over much of the northern part of the island of New Guinea (Indonesia and Papua New Guinea), including a number of offshore islands.
It ranges as far east as the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, where it is present on many islands including the islands of New Britain and New Ireland. It also occurs on many of the Solomon Islands.
It is believed that many of the insular island populations are the result of prehistorical introductions, possibly including Timor, Seram, Buru, Sanana, the Kai Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Solomon Island chain.
The northern common cuscus was introduced into
New Ireland between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago, and into the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...
after 6,000 years ago; in
Biak Island
Biak is an island located in Cenderawasih Bay near the northern coast of Papua, an Indonesian province, and is just northwest of New Guinea. Biak is the largest island in its small archipelago, and has many atolls, reefs, and corals.
The larg ...
and
Supiori Island, it is also an introduced species.
[
]
Niche
Generally, its niche is thought to be that of a nocturnal arboreal folivore
In zoology, a folivore is a herbivore that specializes in eating leaves. Mature leaves contain a high proportion of hard-to-digest cellulose, less energy than other types of foods, and often toxic compounds.Jones, S., Martin, R., & Pilbeam, D. (1 ...
with frugivorous tendencies.
[FLANNERY TF, 1995b. Mammals of the south-west Pacific and Moluccan Islands. Australian Museum / Reed Books: Sydney.]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q209996
Possums
Mammals of Papua New Guinea
Mammals of Indonesia
Mammals of Timor
Marsupials of New Guinea
Fauna of the Lesser Sunda Islands
Mammals described in 1766
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
Taxa named by Peter Simon Pallas