Herbert River Ringtails (Pseudochirulus herbertensis): Iconic Possums of Queensland, Australia

The first Herbert River ringtail possum specimens known to European scientists are from over 130 years ago.  They belong to a collection which a Fåberg-born Norwegian archaeologist, ethnographer, explorer and writer gathered in the nineteenth century. The specimens come from the Australian expeditionary tour of Carl Sofus Lumholtz (April 23, 1851 – May 5, 1922) between 1880 and 1883. They form part of the holdings of the Natural History Museum at the University of Oslo in Norway. It is on the basis of the above-mentioned skins and skulls that Christiania-born Norwegian arachnologist, mammalogist and ornithologist Robert Collett (December 2, 1842 – January 27, 1913) published the first official description and taxonomic identification of Herbert River ringtail possums in 1884.

Pseudochirulus herbertensis functions as the Herbert River ringtail’s scientific name. The genus name hallows the “false hand” look of each forefoot, whose first two digits are opposable to the other three. Each rear foot has as the first digit a hallux (“big toe”) opposable to the other three. Both “hands” thereby hold onto their food in human-like ways while ringtails sit up straight and squat on their tails. Their feet and “hands” thereby hold onto branches, forks, and trunks while ringtails navigate tree canopies. The species name honors the geographic location of Carl’s specimen-collecting successes in the Herbert River Valley of northeastern Australia. The common names Herbert River ringtail possum and mongan join the binomial (“two-name”) designation.

Herbert River possum prehensile, tapered tails attain mature lengths of 11.42 – 18.5 inches (290 – 470 millimeters). Their bases continue the dense, soft, woolly corporeal fur, which is black to dark brown in adults and fawn in juveniles. They contrast with the white of:

• Friction pad-functioning, hairless tail-tips;
• Under-parts;
• Upper forearms.

Heads display:

• Big, dark, rounded eyes whose eyeshine is pink-orange;
• Dark longitudinal median striping on juveniles;
• Roman noses.

Herbert River ringtails mature to:

• Head-and-body and tail lengths respectively of 11.85 – 15.75 inches (301 – 400 millimeters) and 11.42 – 18.5 inches (290 – 470 millimeters), with females occupying the lower ranges;
• Weights of 28.22 – 43.39 ounces (800 – 1,230 grams) in females and 28.57 – 53.97 ounces (810 – 1,530 grams) in males

Colors and shapes blend with the tree canopies in which Herbert River ringtails dwell, feed, and mate. Bi-annual mating times -- with the second occurring if litters die after the first -- cluster in early summer and winter. Solitarily-inclined fathers-to-be immediately depart. Two newborns emerge after 13 – 14 days of gestation. They find their way from the birth canal to their mother’s frontal pouch. They go through:

• Pouch-living for 3 - 4 months;
• Back-riding;
• Alternating being alone in maternal dens with joining their mother on forages, the hour after sunset to 1-1/2 hours before daybreak.

By their first breeding season, they graduate from high-pitched, rapid, soft chatter to clicks for stress and grunts and screeches for displeasure.  

With independence, Herbert River ringtails abandon the home shared just by a mother and her dependent offspring. Dens can be:

• Common ringtail (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) possum-like, dome-shaped nests of interwoven bark, ferns and leaves;
• Opportunistic shelters of stripped bark at the edges of overlapping home ranges of 1.24 – 2.47 acres (0.5 – 1.0 hectare);
• Ready-made nests within epiphytic ferns clumped on upper tree branches;
• Tree hollows.  

They must be in upper canopies, but accessible to:

• Flowers: Bumpy satinash (Syzygium cormiflorum);
• Fruits: Silver quandong (Elaeocarpus kirtonii);
• Leaves: Brown quandong (Elaeocarpus ruminatus), cadaghi gum (Eucalyptus torelliana), murpe vine (Melodinus bacellianus), paper-barked (Syzygium ligneum) and red eungella (Acmena resa) satinash, pink ash (Alphitonia petriei), pink bloodroot (Eucalyptus acmenoides), white basswood (Polyscias murrayi).

Wildlife-lovers access Herbert River ringtail possum homelands at elevations of 1,148.29+ feet (350+ meters) in northeastern Queensland. A past of agro-industry’s large-scale land clearings and selectively intensive logging confine current populations to such silvan habitats as:

• Dense tropical rainforests;
• Logged and open forests;
• Swampy forests within the lower reaches of the Herbert River ringtail’s home territory;
• Wet sclerophyll (“hard-leaved”) forests dominated by flooded gum (Eucalyptus grandis) overstories and tree fern (Cyatheales order) understories and located on the western edges of the Herbert River ringtail possum’s homelands.

The challenge to the Herbert River possum’s survival is more in the lack of continuous canopy than in the particular woodland configuration even though scientists question the impact of eucalypt forest-living.

The wooded niches of Herbert River ringtail possums dot such areas of great natural beauty as:

• Atherton and Evelyn Tablelands;
• Herbert River Gorge;
• Herberton, Hugh Nelson, and Lamb Ranges;
• Mount Lee.

They include Barron Gorge, Girringun, and Wooroonooran National Parks. They lie within easy access of:

• The Great Barrier Reef in the Coral Sea off coastal northeastern Queensland;
• The port city of Cairns;
• The sugar cane plantation center of Ingham;
• The tropical forest-surrounded town of Kuranda.

But research scientists note that Herbert River ringtails on the average lead life cycles that currently last just 2 – 6 years. They suggest that de-isolating Range populations and enhancing the Mulgrave and North Johnstone catchments will improve and lengthen ringtail lifespans.

Climate change assails Herbert River possums. Dwellers of higher altitudes, Herbert River ringtails cannot survive sustained warming above 86ºF (30ºC). They likewise do not tolerate site-specific genetic in-breeding which habitat fragmentation imposes. Genetically weakened possums increasingly fall victim to the carpet python’s (Morelia spilota) sinister predation of mothers, mothers-to-be, and “sub-adults” despite the adult ringtail’s grinding mouthful of:

• 3 incisors, 1 canine, 3 premolars, and 4 molars per left and right upper jaws;
• 2 incisors, 3 premolars, and 4 molars per left and right lower jaws.

But healthy sustainability is a likely scenario since Queenslanders consider Herbert River ringtails as ecologically diverse, environmentally significant, evolutionarily enlightening, and naturally beautiful as Queensland's UNESCO-designated Wet Tropics World Heritage Sites. 

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

undated portrait of Carl Lumholtz "in Australian dress": frontispiece, Carl Lumholtz's Among Cannibals (1889): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carl.Lumholtz.jpg

Fotograf / Photographer: Robert Collett (1842-1913): Nasjonalbiblioteket (National Library of Norway), No known copyright restrictions, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/national_library_of_norway/6981537427/

Distribution data from IUCN Red List: Chermundy/IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species assessors and the authors of the spatial data, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Herbert_River_Ringtail_Possum_area.png

Proceedings of Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1884 (May 20), Plate XXX, between pp. 380-381: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28690271

Syzygium cormiflorum, Lake Eacham, Atherton Tableland - buds and flowers on trunk: Casliber, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Syzygium_cormiflorum_lakeeacham.JPG

"Bracken fern in open woodland on the Herberton Range.": certified su, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herberton_Range.jpg; via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/81639392@N00/2665716491

Barron Gorge, near Kuranda, Queensland: Eelco (TalShiar at Dutch Wikipedia), Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kuranda_-_Barron_Gorge_lookout.jpg

Reptilien-Zoo, Scheidegg, Free State of Bavaria, southeastern Germany: Holger Krisp (Holleday), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rautenpython_Morelia_spilota_ceynei.jpg

Figure 3, page 384: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28690279

Figure 4, page 385: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28690280

Kuranda Scenic Railway alongside Kuranda Railway Station, southeastern Cape York Peninsula, Far North Queensland: Frances76, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kuranda-rail.JPG

view of Cairns from Lake Morris with the Yarrabah peninsula in the background: Frances76 at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cairns-copperlode.JPG

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