New Guinea and Queensland ring bags
| New Guinea and Queensland ring bags | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Herbert River Ringbeutler ( Pseudochirulus herbertensis ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pseudochirulus | ||||||||||||
| Matschie , 1915 |
The pseudochirulus ( Pseudochirulus ) are a marsupial genus of the family of pseudocheiridae (Pseudocheiridae). The eight species in this genus are closely related to the common ring-bagger and are sometimes classified in its genus, Pseudocheirus .
These animals have a dense, woolly fur that is usually gray, brown or black in color. The underside is usually lighter, often completely white, some species have additional stripes on the face or back. The long tail is thinly haired, the rear part of the underside is hairless, it can be used as a prehensile tail. Like most ring baggers, they are characterized by their small head with short ears and special front paws, where the first two fingers can be opposed . These animals reach head body lengths of 17 to 36 centimeters, their tail is 15 to 39 centimeters long and their weight is 100 to 1500 grams.
As the name suggests, the animals live in New Guinea (6 species) and in northern Queensland (2 species). Their habitat are forests, primarily rainforests, where they spend almost their entire life on the trees. They are nocturnal and sleep in leaf nests or tree trunks during the day. Their diet consists mainly of leaves, but they may also eat fruit. Presumably they live solitary.
Little is known about reproduction; the females have two functional teats in the pouch. The one or two young animals spend the first few months of life in their mother's pouch and then stay in the nest of leaves before they become independent.
The destruction of their habitat is one of the main threats to these animals; however, exact dates are not available for many species.
There are eight types:
- The Hundsringbeutler ( Pseudochirulus canescens ) is common in lower regions of New Guinea .
- The stained tail-pseudocheiridae ( Pseudochirulus caroli ) is located in the central part of New Guinea.
- The gray ringbuck ( Pseudochirulus cinereus ) is native to northern Queensland in a small area southeast of the Cape York Peninsula .
- Forbes' Ringbeutler ( Pseudochirulus forbesi ) occurs in eastern New Guinea.
- The Herbert River Ringbeutler ( Pseudochirulus herbertensis ) occurs in northern Queensland south of the distribution area of the gray ringbeutler.
- The mask ring bagler ( Pseudochirulus larvatus ) occurs in New Guinea.
- The dwarf ringbuttler ( Pseudochirulus mayeri ) inhabits the central mountains of New Guinea. It is one of the smaller species.
- Schlegel's Ringbeutler ( Pseudochirulus schlegeli ) is known from eight specimens from the western tip of New Guinea.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0801857899
Web links
- Pseudochirulus on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species2008. Accessed April 16, 2015.
- Figure Pseudochirulus canescens
