Admiralty Island Cuscus
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The Admiralty Island cuscus or Manus Island spotted cuscus (''Spilocuscus kraemeri'') is a species of
marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...
in the family Phalangeridae. It is
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to the
Admiralty Islands The Admiralty Islands are an archipelago group of 40 islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the South Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-cov ...
of
Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
. It is the smallest member of the genus '' Spilocuscus'', and the female has a black back, while the male has blackish spots on a white background. Both genders have
rufous Rufous () is a color that may be described as reddish-brown or brownish- red, as of rust or oxidised iron. The first recorded use of ''rufous'' as a color name in English was in 1782. However, the color is also recorded earlier in 1527 as a d ...
heads. Listed as Near Threatened because, although it is common within its small range (its extent of occurrence is less than 2,000 km2), there is continuing decline in both quality of habitat and numbers of individuals, thus making the species close to qualifying for Vulnerable under criterion B. The increasing human population pressures and the low fecundity of this relatively long-lived animal are cause for concern. Populations of this species should be closely monitored.


References

Possums Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals described in 1910 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Marsupials of New Guinea Taxa named by Ernst Schwarz {{Diprotodont-stub