The white-striped dorcopsis or greater forest wallaby (''Dorcopsis hageni'') 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 po ...

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 found in the northern part of West Papua,

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 Guine ...

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 ...

. It is a common species in suitable tropical forest habitat and the

IUCN 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 natu ...

lists its conservation status 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 ...

Distribution and habitat

The white-striped dorcopsis 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 the island of New Guinea; its range includes much of the northern parts of West Papua and Papua New Guinea but it is absent from the

Huon Peninsula Huon Peninsula is a large rugged peninsula on the island of New Guinea in Morobe Province, eastern Papua New Guinea. It is named after French explorer Jean-Michel Huon de Kermadec. The peninsula is dominated by the steep Saruwaged and Finister ...

. It is present at altitudes of up to about above sea level. It lives in both primary and secondary tropical forests and is tolerant of some degree of habitat degradation. In the northern part of its range it is found in

alluvial fans An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...

at the edge of the

Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Sepi ...

floodplains. In the southern part of its range it is found in mixed alluvial forest but is absent from even the lowest part of hill forests. Dorcopsis à raies blanches (Dorcopsis hageni)

Dorcopsis à raies blanches (Dorcopsis hageni)

Biology

The white-striped dorcopsis is a terrestrial

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

and browser but has also been seen during daylight hours turning over flat stones in search of insects and other organisms. It also feeds on the fruiting bodies of fungi and may play a part in spreading spores and thus maintaining healthy

mycorrhiza A mycorrhiza (from Greek μύκης ', "fungus", and ῥίζα ', "root"; pl. mycorrhizae, mycorrhiza or mycorrhizas) is a symbiotic association between a fungus and a plant. The term mycorrhiza refers to the role of the fungus in the plant ...

l communities in the forest. Single naked young have been found in the pouches of females during the months of January and April.

Status

The white-striped dorcopsis has a range covering a large area of northern New Guinea and within that range it is common in suitable habitat. It is present in both primary and secondary forest and in some protected areas, and apart from some hunting for food, does not face any significant threats. The total number of animals is believed to be large and the population trend stable. For these reasons, 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 natu ...

has listed it as being of "

" in its Red List of Threatened Species. It is hunted for human consumption in New Guinea.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q209627 Macropods Mammals of Papua New Guinea Mammals of Western New Guinea Mammals described in 1897 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Marsupials of New Guinea