Macleay's dorcopsis (''Dorcopsulus macleayi''), also known as the Papuan dorcopsis or the Papuan forest wallaby, is a species of

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 a ...

in the 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 ...

. It 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 else ...

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 ...

, where its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forest]. Being little threatened by

habitat destruction 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 ...

, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

has rated it as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

Taxonomy

Macleay's dorcopsis was first described by the Russian biologist

Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay (russian: Никола́й Никола́евич Миклу́хо-Макла́й; 1846 – 1888) was a Russian Imperial explorer. He worked as an ethnologist, anthropologist and biologist who became famous as one of ...

who named it ''Dorcopsulus macleayi'' in honour of the Australian naturalist

William John Macleay Sir William John Macleay (13 June 1820 – 7 December 1891) was a Scottish- Australian politician, naturalist, zoologist, and herpetologist. Early life Macleay was born at Wick, Caithness, Scotland, second son of Kenneth Macleay of Keiss and ...

. It is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

of the genus. Some authorities consider it to be the same species as the small dorcopsis (''Dorcopsulus vanheurni''), which has a much wider distribution in New Guinea, but Groves (2005) supports its status as a separate species.

Description

The species is a small, nocturnal forest wallaby with an average weight of about and fur that is dense and dark brown to black. It differs from ''D. vanheurni'' in having about two-thirds to three-quarters of its tail covered with fur, compared to one half in ''D. vanheurni''.

Distribution

Macleay's dorcopsis is

to the southeastern part of the island of New Guinea. It is found in hilly areas and lower montane slopes at altitudes of between where it occurs in both primary and secondary tropical moist forest.

Status

At one time considered to be a "

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatening its survival and reproduction improve. Vulnera ...

", ''D. macleayi'' is now listed by the

as being of "

"; the area where it lives is inaccessible and largely undisturbed, it is a common species and no particular threats have been identified. The indigenous people hunt this species for food to a limited extent, but not to such a degree as to warrant placing it in a more threatened category.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q209742 Macropods Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals described in 1885 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Marsupials of New Guinea