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''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torres ...

(split between Indonesia and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

). 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 of marsupials that includes kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing other macropods, and ar ...

) with kangaroos, and carries its young in a pouch like other

marsupials Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in a po ...

. The range is restricted to two small mountain areas in the north (the Foja and

Torricelli Mountains The Torricelli Mountains are a mountain range in Sandaun Province, north-western Papua New Guinea. The highest peak in the range is Mount Sulen at 1650 meters. The Bewani Mountains are located to the west, and the Prince Alexander Mountains a ...

) and it is threatened by hunting and habitat loss.

Distribution

It is native to two locations on the island: the

of northwestern

; and the

Foja Mountains The Foja Mountains (Foja Range, Foya Mountains) ( id, Pegunungan Foja) are located just north of the Mamberamo river basin in Papua, Indonesia. The mountains rise to , and have 3,000 square kilometers of old growth tropical rainforest in the in ...

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 Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri. It is bordered by ...

, in

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. It has been recorded at elevations between . There are fossil records from

Vogelkop Peninsula The Bird's Head Peninsula ( Indonesian: ''Kepala Burung'', nl, Vogelkop) or Doberai Peninsula (''Semenanjung Doberai''), is a large peninsula that makes up the northwest portion of the island of New Guinea, comprising the Indonesian provinces o ...

in West Papua and other places.

Description

This

marsupial Marsupials are any members of the mammalian infraclass Marsupialia. All extant marsupials are endemic to Australasia, Wallacea and the Americas. A distinctive characteristic common to most of these species is that the young are carried in ...

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 Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo (''Dendrolagus goodfellowi''), also called the ornate tree-kangaroo, is an endangered, long-tailed, bear-like mammal native to rainforests of New Guinea. Like most tree-kangaroos (genus ''Dendrolagus''), it lives in the ...

. 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 biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...

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 known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

from most of its original range. 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 the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biolo ...

Critically endangered species 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. It covers an area of 35,920 km2 (13868 m2) and has a population of 248,411 (2011 census). The capita ...

was discovered by McCullers in 2005, and described by Australian naturalist

Tim Flannery Timothy Fridtjof Flannery (born 28 January 1956) is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist, conservationist, explorer, author, science communicator, activist and public scientist. He was awarded Australian of the Yea ...

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