Moss-Forest Painted Ringtail Possums (Pseudochirulus forbesi) in Bird's Tail Peninsula, New Guinea

New Guinea belongs to independent Papua New Guinea on its east side and to Papua Indonesia on its west side. The island’s southeastern-most region carries the names Bird’s Tail Peninsula and Papuan Peninsula. The Bird’s Tail claims a geography of:

• Cities, towns, and villages dominated by Papua New Guinea’s industrial center at Lae and national capital at Port Moresby;
• Coasts, lowlands, and mountains dominated by the Owen Stanley Range peaks at 12,060.37-foot-high (3,676-meter) Mount Suckling and 13,248.03-foot-high (4,038-meter) Mount Victoria.

Temperatures cluster around 69.98°F (21.1°C). As much as 7.79 inches (197.82 millimeters) of precipitation fall monthly. But rainfall quickly gets recycled by being:

• Evaporated back into the peninsular air;
• Filtered through dense foliage;
• Grounded with surface runoff.

Soils express surface geologies of:

• Fine-grained sediments;
• Igneous rocks, lavas, and pyroclastics (“fire-broken fragments”);
• Metamorphosed sandstone, siltstone, and volcanics.

They favor:

• Coastal freshwater swamps of Anisoptera, Calophyllum, Casuarina, and Terminalia;
• Lowland alluvial and foothill forests;
• Lower-, mid-, and upper-montane forests 4,593.18+ feet (1,400+ meters) above sea level.

Lowland vegetation includes:

• Bigger-crowned, unevenly-canopied Anisoptera thurifera, Buchanania macrocarpa, Canarium, Celtis, Cryptocarya, Dillenia, Dysoxylum, Eucalyptopsis papuana, Ficus, Hopea iriana, Koompassia, Pometia pinnata, Syzygium, Terminalia, and Vatica;
• Densely-growing climbers, epiphytes (air-rooted “upon another plant”), and ferns;
• Open-canopied palms and shrubs;
• Super-tall Araucaria stands.

Mountainous vegetation involves:

• Densely-clustered, even-canopied, small-crowned Actinodaphne nitida, Araucaria, Beilschmiedia, Castanopsis acuminatissima, Cinnamomum eugenoliferum, Cryptocarya, Elaeocarpus, Endiandra, Lithocarpus, Litsea, and Phoebe laevis lower down;
• Moss-covered Nothofagus higher up.

Moss-forest painted ringtails associate with all of the above-mentioned vegetation -- except coastal swamps -- since home embraces altitudes of 1,640.42 – 9,842.52 feet (500 – 3,000 meters) above sea level. They in fact belong on all lists of Bird’s Tail-specific wildlife. They consequently count as bio-colleagues:

• Eastern parotias (Parotia helenae);
• New Guinea big-eared bats (Pharotis imogene);
• Queen Alexandra’s Birdwings (Ornithoptera alexandrae);
• Streaked bowerbirds (Amblyornis subalaris);
• Van Deusen’s rats (Stenomys vandeuseni).

They emerge as southeastern-most New Guinea’s iconic ringtail even though:

• The range of masked ringtails (Pseudochirulus larvatus) dovetails in the extreme northwest of the moss-forest painted ringtail’s bio-geography;
• The ranges of coppery (Pseudochirops cupreus), golden plush-coated (Pseudochirops corinnae) and lowland (Pseudochirulus canescens) ringtails extend into Bird’s Tail Peninsula.

The peninsula’s 30,000 square miles (77,699.64 square kilometers) accommodate sylvan life cycles and natural histories. Moss-forest painted ringtails function as:

• Arboreal prey for raptors, reptiles, and villagers;
• Nocturnal folivores (“leaf-eaters”) of calcium-, magnesium-, potassium-rich bark on 5+ tree species and leaves on 75+ tree species;
• Obligate pest-controllers and vegetation-monitors in disturbed and primary foothill and montane forests;
• Solitary occupants of dreys (squirrel-like nests) and hollows in extended-family home ranges overlapping 1 male with 2 females.

Spaciousness gives moss-forest painted ringtails means, motives, and opportunities for articulating subspecies whose bio-geographies and physiques slightly vary. It identifies why the moss-forest painted and pygmy (Pseudochirulus mayeri) ringtails’ ancestor ventured into elevations of 9,842.52+ feet (3,000+ meters) 2,400,000 – 6,000,000 years ago.

Scientists currently consider as possible subspecies:

• Pseudochirulus forbesi barbatus and capistratus (per Paul Matschie [August 11, 1861 – March 7, 1926], 1915);
• P.f. forbesi (per Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas [February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929], 1887);
• P.f. lewisi (per John Guy Dollman [September 4, 1886 – March 13, 1942], 1930);
• P.f. longipilis (per George Henry Hamilton Tate [April 30, 1894 – December 24, 1953] and Richard Archbold [April 9, 1907 – August 1, 1976], 1935).

The Thomas designation functions as the nominate (“first-described”) subspecies. The genus name Pseudochirulus honors a ringtail possum’s “false-handed,” human-like, opposable big toes and thumbs. The species name memorializes Henry Ogg Forbes (January 30, 1851 – October 27, 1932) as specimen collector on the Port Moresby-area Astrolabe Range.

Every moss-forest painted ringtail has fine sensory whiskers and dense, short, woolly-soft fur. The prehensile (“grasping”) tail’s ring-curling tip and slip-proof undersides have little hair. White lightens:

• Corporeal under-parts;
• Ear fronts;
• Eye rings encircling big, dark-adapted, rounded eyes;
• Facial outlines;
• Paw claws.

Continuous dark striping lines grey-brown upper-sides from the snout backwards. The grey-brown coat looks orange- to red-brown on both sides of the forehead’s dividing stripe. It makes the lower face and snout look super-dark, particularly when contrasted with:

• The upper jaw’s 6 incisors, 2 canines, 6 premolars;
• The lower jaw’s 8 molars and 4 incisors, 6 premolars, and 8 molars.

Mature head-and-body lengths and weights nudge 10.44 inches (26.52 centimeters) and 22.55 ounces (639.16 grams).

Agro-industrialism, globally-warmed climate change, over-hunting, and pollution challenge what locals call moss-forest painted ringtails:

• Kuskus ekor kait hutan lumut;
• Paygaegat;
• Sab.  

Scientists indeed consider cumulative stresses from the above-mentioned gradual, intermittent, sudden, and sustained changes. For example, habitats get degraded, fragmented, heated, and polluted from:

• Nickel mining;
• Plantation agriculture;
• Residential and urban expansion;
• Road construction;
• Timber harvesting.

They also get stressed by hunting-impassioned villagers since moss-forest painted ringtails:

• Are vulnerable with pouch-confined and back-riding pre-adults;
• Cannot escape arrows, bows, clubs, fires, and traps;
• Deliver 1 annual newborn per mother;
• Practice active avoidance.

Scientists nevertheless regard ambient stresses as presently non-catastrophic because of ample territories, environmental awareness, and protected areas at:

• Abau;
• Morobe;
• Mounts Suckling and Victoria;
• Popondetta.

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

Location map of Papua New Guinea: Dr Brains, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Papua_New_Guinea_location_map_Topographic.png

jungle clad ranges of Owen Stanley Range, Central Papua New Guinea: Colin Freeman (ColinF at English Wikipedia), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OwenStanleyJungle_clad_mountainsPapuaNew_Guinea.jpg

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:Painted_Ringtail_Possum_area.png

Annali del Museo civico di storia naturale di Genova, Ser. 2, Vol. XVIII (XXXVIII), Tav. II: Public Domain, via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/annalidelmuseoci38muse/page/n742/mode/1up

oil on canvas by John Ernest Breun (1862-1921): Kristofer M. Helgen, Roberto Portela Miguez, James Kohen, Lauren Helgen/ZooKeys, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Michael_Rogers_Oldfield_Thomas_-_ZooKeys-255-103-g003-bottom_right.jpeg; via Pensoft Publishers / ZooKeys @ https://zookeys.pensoft.net/showimg.php?filename=oo_25946.jpg

Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy off the coast of Papua New Guinea in support of Pacific Partnership: Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Michael C. Barton/U.S. Navy, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Navy_080811-N-8878B-434_The_Military_Sealift_Command_hospital_ship_USNS_Mercy_(T-AH_19)_anchored_off_the_coast_of_Papua_New_Guinea_in_support_of_Pacific_Partnership_2008.jpg

Oldfield Thomas, Catalogue of the Marsupialia and Monotremata in the Collection of the British Museum (1888), Plate I: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pseudochirulus_forbesi.jpg

Mount Bosavi, Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea: panvorax, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mount_Bosavi_pad_pan.jpg; Nyctalimon, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/20165852@N00/3028951603/

Raggiana Bird of Paradise, Paradisaea raggiana: markaharper1, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Raggiana_Bird-of-Paradise_wild_5.jpg;

view of the Owen Stanley Ranges from Ower's Corner, 31 miles (50 km) east of Port Moresby: Colin Freeman (ColinF at English Wikipedia), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:OwenStanleyRangeOwersCornerView.jpg

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