Tree kangaroos

In 1990, a new species of tree kangaroo, the golden-mantled tree kangaroo, was discovered in the Torricelli Mountains of Papua New Guinea. It had a chestnut-brown coat, pale belly, and a double stripe of gold down its back. A second population of the marsupial was discovered on the Indonesian side of the New Guinea island in 2005, but there are few of these animals, and their population is thought to be decreasing. Scientists estimate that the golden-mantled tree kangaroo has been extirpated from 99% of its historical range, its numbers driven low by habitat destruction and hunting.

The same factors that threaten the golden-mantled tree kangaroo also put many of the 13 other tree kangaroo species at risk. Many tree kangaroo species are incredibly rare, and most are decreasing in number. These animals represent an interesting divergence in the evolution of Macropods—the family of marsupials that includes kangaroos and wallabies. Macropods were once all tree dwellers, but millions of years ago, they descended from the trees to live on the ground. The ancestors of tree kangaroos eventually headed back up into the foliage, and they are now the largest tree-dwelling mammals in Australia.

Tree kangaroos live in lowland and mountainous rainforests in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and the far north of Queensland, Australia. They have adapted to life in the trees, with shorter legs and stronger forelimbs for climbing, giving them somewhat of the appearance of a cross between a kangaroo and a lemur.