The Telefomin cuscus (''Phalanger matanim'') is a critically endangered

possum Possum may refer to: Animals * Didelphimorphia, or (o)possums, an order of marsupials native to the Americas ** Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia *** Common opossum, native to Central and South America *** Virginia opossum ...

found on

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 ...

. It is named after the Telefol ethnic group, who hunted the animal long before it was identified scientifically by the

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Tim Flannery. It is believed to live only in the extremely restricted range of one valley's oak forests at altitudes between along a single river in the middle of Papua New Guinea: the Nong River Valley north of Telefomin. After 1997's drought, extremely cold weather ("bitter frosts") which killed the trees, and resulting wildfires, these forests were destroyed, which Flannery believes might have resulted in the species' extinction. In 2022, British tourist Michael Smith found the Telefomin cuscus eaten by the locals, indicating that this species is still surviving in the wild.

Habitat

This cuscus can or has been found in the areas of Telefomin and Tifalmin, 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 ...

. It might be found even further northeast or west of the known collection areas. The only place where it is known with certainty was largely destroyed by a fire in 1998 which was caused by a drought during an

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References

Possums Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals described in 1987 Marsupials of New Guinea Taxa named by Tim Flannery {{Diprotodont-stub