The dingiso () (''Dendrolagus mbaiso''), also known as the bondegezou, is an endangered, long-tailed marsupial found only in mountain forests on the west of the island of

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 ...

(in Indonesia). It is a species of tree-kangaroo (genus '' Dendrolagus''), which are mammals native to Australia and New Guinea that feed on leaves or other plant matter. It belongs to the macropodid family (

Macropodidae Macropodidae is a family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing other macropods, and ar ...

) with kangaroos, and carries its young in a pouch like other

marsupials 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 a po ...

. Though sacred to the local

Moni people The Moni (also known as the Migani, the Megani, the Djonggunu, or the Jonggunu) are an indigenous people in the Indonesian Paniai regency (kabupaten) of the Papua province (formerly Central Irian Jaya) of West Papua (western part of the island o ...

, it is still threatened by hunting and habitat loss. The species name ''mbaiso'' means "the forbidden animal" in Moni.

Distribution

The

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 ...

lives in sub-alpine

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s in the

Sudirman Range The Sudirman Range, also known as the Snow Mountains,"Sudirman Mountains (Snow Mountains)". Papua Insects Foundation. Accessed 5 August 2021/ref> Dugunduguoo, or Nassau Range is a mountain range in Central Papua province, Indonesia. It is named a ...

in Papua Province of

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...

. It lives just below the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

, at elevations of . The species was first filmed for an episode of the BBC documentary ''

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

'' TV series in 2009, after 11 days of searching with local Moni tribesmen. According to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the dingiso inhabits mossy forests and shrubland and is "found in rugged areas".

Description

The dingiso has a distinctive pattern of black and white fur, it has a white belly, and a black head, back and limbs. Unlike other tree kangaroos, it spends little time in the trees.

Taxonomy

''Dendrolagus mbaiso'' was formally described to science in 1995 by

Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

Tim Flannery Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator, activist and public scientist. He was awarded Australian of the Yea ...

, Indonesian zoologist Boeadi, and Australian anthropologist Alexandra Szalay.

Behavior

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species states that the dingiso is mainly terrestrial and "very docile".

Conservation

The dingiso remains common in the west because of the protection conferred on it by the Moni people. For many Moni, it is an ancestor which must never be harmed. Nonetheless, '' Dendrolagus mbaiso'' is an

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolo ...

Endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. Julie Boswell lists "hunting for food, habitat loss, increasing human populations, agricultural stresses, and climate change" as the main threats that the dingiso faces.

References

External links

Papuaweb.org: ''Tree Kangaroos: A Curious Natural History'' — the Dingiso section
Macropods Marsupials of New Guinea Endemic fauna of Indonesia Mammals of Western New Guinea Endangered fauna of Oceania Mammals described in 1995 {{Diprotodont-stub