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

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

in the family

Macropodidae Macropodidae is a Family (biology), family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, Wallaby, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

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

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

, the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has rated it as being of "

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

Taxonomy

Macleay's dorcopsis was first described by the Russian biologist Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay 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 h ...

. It is the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

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 Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

", ''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