The Sulawesi bear cuscus, also known as the Sulawesi bear phalanger (''Ailurops ursinus''), is a species of

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally (scansorial), but others are exclusively arboreal. The hab ...

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 that 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 ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi ( ), also known as Celebes ( ), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the List of islands by area, world's 11th-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Min ...

and nearby islands in

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 lives in tropical moist lowland forest at elevations up to and is diurnal, folivorous and often found in pairs. ''A. ursinus'' is threatened by hunting, collection for the pet trade and

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

. One specimen was observed adopting a raised posture while making short, harsh sounds, alternating between ''chatter'' and ''click'' sounds. Bear cuscuses can feed on the young leaves of up to 31 different species of plants varying from trees,

liana A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the Canopy (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. T ...

s, and

mistletoe Mistletoe is the common name for obligate parasite, obligate parasitic plant, hemiparasitic plants in the Order (biology), order Santalales. They are attached to their host tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they ...

s. Feeding only amounts to about 5% of their daily activity, compared to about 63% spent on resting.

Gallery

File:Sulawesi trsr DSCN0548 v1.JPG, Male in Tangkoko Nature Reserve File:Sulawesi trsr DSCN0549 v1.JPG, Female and infant on fruiting ''Ficus'' tree in Tangkoko File:Ailurops ursinus (1).JPG, Bear cuscus in Sulawesi File:Ailurops ursinus (4).JPG, ''Ailurops ursinus'' in Tangkoko

References

Possums Mammals of Sulawesi Mammals described in 1824 Taxa named by Coenraad Jacob Temminck Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Diprotodont-stub