The dingiso () (''Dendrolagus mbaiso''), also known as the bondegezou, is an endangered, long-tailed marsupial found only in mountain forests on the west of 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 Torr ...

(in Indonesia). It is a species of tree-kangaroo (genus ''

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

''), which are mammals native to Australia and New Guinea that feed on leaves or other plant matter. It belongs to the macropodid 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. Though sacred to the local

Moni people The Moni (also known as the Migani, the Megani, the Djonggunu, or the Jonggunu) are an indigenous people in the Indonesian Paniai regency (kabupaten) of the Papua province (formerly Central Irian Jaya) of West Papua (western part of the island ...

, it is still threatened by hunting and habitat loss. The species name ''mbaiso'' means "the forbidden animal" in Moni.

Distribution

The

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 ...

lives in sub-alpine

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s in the

Sudirman Range The Sudirman Range, also known as the Snow Mountains,"Sudirman Mountains (Snow Mountains)". Papua Insects Foundation. Accessed 5 August 2021/ref> Dugunduguoo, or Nassau Range is a mountain range in Central Papua province, Indonesia. It is named a ...

in Papua Province of

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 ...

. It lives just below the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

, at elevations of . The species was first filmed for an episode of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

Taxonomy

Australian Museum The Australian Museum is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. It is the oldest museum in Australia,Design 5, 2016, p.1 and the fifth oldest natural history museum in the ...

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

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 ...

Alexandra Szalay

Behavior

Conservation

The dingiso remains common in the west because of the protection conferred on it by the Moni people. For many

Moni Moni or Mone ( Kamkata-vari: ''Mone''/''Mune''), also known as Mandi (from Prasun) was, after Imra, the second-most important god in the pre-Islamic pantheon of the Nuristani people. With his breath, Imra created Moni and Gish. Moni was believe ...

, it is an ancestor which must never be harmed. Nonetheless, ''

mbaiso'' is 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 biol ...

ed Endangered species. Julie Boswell lists "hunting for food, habitat loss, increasing human populations, agricultural stresses, and climate change" as the main threats that the dingiso faces.

References

External links