The painted treeshrew (''Tupaia picta'') is a
treeshrew
The treeshrews (or tree shrews or banxrings) are small mammals native to the tropical forests of South and Southeast Asia. They make up the entire order Scandentia, which split into two families: the Tupaiidae (19 species, "ordinary" treeshrews) ...
species of the family
Tupaiidae
Tupaiidae is one of two families of treeshrews, the other family being Ptilocercidae. The family contains three living genera and 19 living species. The family name derives from ''tupai'', the Malay word for treeshrew and also for squirrel which ...
.
The first specimen was described by
Oldfield Thomas
Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist.
Career
Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for the first time. He was appoin ...
and was part of a zoological collection from northern Borneo obtained by the
British Museum of Natural History
The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...
.
Characteristics
The painted treeshrew has a body length of a little bit over 7 inches (18.5 centimeters) and a slightly shorter tail length, making it one of the smaller treeshrews in its genus. Most of its body is a rather dull color compared to other related species, consisting of mostly grayish olive, with a few yellow spots. However, its chin and chest are brighter colored, consisting of mostly orange and yellow. It also has a black stripe on its back.
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Distribution and habitat
The painted treeshrew is endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...
to Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
and inhabits the forests of Brunei
Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...
, Kalimantan
Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo.
In 2019, ...
, and Sarawak
Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...
. It usually lives at lower elevations, below 300 meters, but some specimens have been found at elevations hundreds of meters higher. Although the painted treeshrew is not a threatened species, it still suffers from loss of habitat
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
.
Behaviour and ecology
The painted treeshrew's diet consists mainly of fruits and insects.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1763907
Treeshrews
Mammals of Brunei
Mammals of Indonesia
Mammals of Malaysia
Mammals of Borneo
Endemic fauna of Borneo
Mammals described in 1892
Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot