The dusky pademelon or dusky wallaby (''Thylogale brunii'') 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

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

. It is found in the Aru and Kai islands and the Trans-Fly savanna and grasslands ecoregion of

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are subtropical or tropical dry

forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...

s, dry

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

, subtropical or tropical dry

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally o ...

, and subtropical or tropical dry lowland

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

Names

The scientific name of this

pademelon Pademelons () are small marsupials in the genus ''Thylogale'', found in Australia, New Guinea, and surrounding islands. They are some of the smallest members of the macropod family, which includes the similar-looking but larger kangaroos and ...

honors

Cornelis de Bruijn Cornelis de Bruijn or Cornelius de Bruyn (; 16521726/7), also formerly known in English by his French name Corneille Le Brun, was a Dutch artist and traveler. He made two large tours and published illustrated books with his observations of peop ...

, the Dutch painter who first described it in the second volume of his ''Travels'', originally published in 1711. There de Bruijn labeled his description with a common name then current, philander ("friend of man"). A later common name was the Aru Island

wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...

. It is known as kutwal (or kotwal) in the Kalam language 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 ...

.Pawley, Andrew and Ralph Bulmer. 2015. ''A Dictionary of Kalam with Ethnographic Notes''. Canberra. Pacific Linguistics. François Valentyn records that Aru Islanders call it ''aijir'' and ''pelandoe''; the Malays call it ''pelandok-aru'' ("Aru mousedeer") while the Ambonese call it ''koeskoes-aroe'' ("Aru cuscus") because it has a pouch like said animal.

References

External links

* Macropods Endemic fauna of New Guinea Marsupials of New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals described in 1778 Taxa named by Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Diprotodont-stub