The golden-mantled tree-kangaroo (''Dendrolagus pulcherrimus'') is a critically endangered, furry, bear-like mammal found only in mountain rain forests on the island 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 ...

(split between Indonesia and

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 ...

). Like other tree-kangaroos (genus ''Dendrolagus''), it lives in trees and feeds on plant matter. It belongs to the macropod 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 ...

) with kangaroos, and carries its young in a pouch like other marsupials. The range is restricted to two small mountain areas in the north (the Foja and Torricelli Mountains) and it is threatened by hunting and

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 ...

Distribution

It is native to two locations on the island: the Torricelli Mountains of northwestern

; and the Foja Mountains of northeastern

Papua Province Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of the Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri, and is divided in ...

, in

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, and Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the island of New Guinea, formerly Dutch and granted to Indonesia in 1962. Given the island is alternatively named Papua, the region ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It has been recorded at elevations between . There are fossil records from Vogelkop Peninsula in West Papua and other places.

Description

This

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 ...

has a chestnut brown short coat with a pale belly, and yellowish neck, cheeks and feet. A double golden stripe runs down its back. The tail is long and has pale rings. Its appearance is similar to the closely related Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo. It differs from the latter by having a pinkish or lighter coloured face, golden shoulders, white ears and smaller size. Some authorities consider the golden-mantled tree-kangaroo as a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo.

Conservation

The golden-mantled tree-kangaroo is considered to be one of the most endangered of all tree-kangaroos. It has been

extirpated Local extinction, also extirpation, is the termination of a species (or other taxon) in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions. Local extinctions mark a chan ...

from most of its original

range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...

. It has been listed as 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 an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

Critically endangered species An IUCN Red List critically endangered (CR or sometimes CE) species is one that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild. As of December 2023, of the ...

since 2015. The population in the Torricelli Range is now effectively protected by the Tenkile Conservation Alliance.

Taxonomy

The Foja Mountains population in

was described in 1993 by naturalist Ruby McCullers.Flannery, T. 1995. ''Mammals of New Guinea.'' Reed Books. The Torricelli Mountains population in

Sandaun Province Sandaun Province (formerly West Sepik Province) is the northwesternmost mainland Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea (also known as home of the sunset). It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population ...

was discovered by McCullers in 2005, and described by Australian naturalist Tim Flannery in 2006.

References

External links

National Geographic: "Golden-mantled tree-kangaroo" article

BBC News: Golden-mantled tree-kangaroo
{{Taxonbar, from=Q209545 Macropods Marsupials of New Guinea Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Papua (province) Sandaun Province Critically endangered fauna of Oceania Mammals described in 1993 Taxa named by Tim Flannery