The ursine tree-kangaroo (''Dendrolagus ursinus'') is a long-tailed, furry, bear-like

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

found only in tropical 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 ...

(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, ...

). Slightly larger than a cat, it lives alone in trees and is active at night to feed on leaves and fruit. 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 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 ...

. It has a small range in northwestern New Guinea and is threatened by habitat loss and hunting. Other common names for this species include the black tree-kangaroo, the Vogelkop tree-kangaroo and the white-throated tree-kangaroo.

Description

This

tree-kangaroo Tree-kangaroos are marsupials of the genus ''Dendrolagus'', adapted for arboreal locomotion. They inhabit the tropical rainforests of New Guinea and far northeastern Queensland, Australia along with some of the islands in the region. All tree- ...

grows to a head-and-body length of with a tail of , and a weight of up to . The upper parts are glossy black while the underparts are fawn. There is a whitish collar and throat, and the face is brown with white or red cheeks. The ears are distinctive, being long and tufted. The long fur is whorled on the shoulders, a pattern which is thought to help carry excess rainwater away from the head. Compared to terrestrial kangaroos, the limbs are short, with broad feet, well-roughened soles and curled claws for climbing. The tail is long and tipped with white and is used as a counterbalance.

Distribution and habitat

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 island of

, the species is present on the Vogelkop Peninsula in the far northwest of the island and possibly also the Fakfak Peninsula in West Papua. It occurs in tropical forests at altitudes between .

Biology

The ursine tree-kangaroo is nocturnal, solitary and lives mainly in trees, though it can descend to the ground where its gait is bipedal, hopping rather clumsily on its hind legs. It is much more agile among the branches of trees, where it feeds on fruit and leaves. Breeding is thought to take place at any time of year. Being a marsupial, a tiny neonate is born about thirty days after conception, and wriggles through the fur of the mother's abdomen to the pouch. Here it attaches to a nipple and develops for about three hundred days.

Status

''D. ursinus'' has a very limited range and is declining in numbers; the population is thought to have diminished by at least 30% within the last three generations (thirty years). The two main threats it faces are

habitat destruction 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 ...

as forests are cleared to provide farming land, and hunting by indigenous peoples for food. Historically, it used to be present in lowland forests, but now it only occurs in mountain forests. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has assessed its conservation status as being " vulnerable".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q209139 Macropods Marsupials of New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Endemic fauna of Indonesia Vulnerable fauna of Oceania Mammals described in 1836 Taxa named by Coenraad Jacob Temminck Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Vogelkop montane rain forests