Reclusive Ringtail Possum (Pseudochirops coronatus): Green Marsupial of Indonesian New Guinea

The Arfak Mountains are home to reclusive ringtail possums. They comprise the eastern portion of a generally continuous mountain chain whose northwestern portion is called the Tamrau Mountains. The Tamrau Mountains continue to be the lesser known and surveyed of the two. In contrast and despite rugged remoteness, the Arfak range -- whose name means “interior” in the coastally-based Biak language -- draws explorers and researchers since Dutch colonization throughout the west of the southwest Pacific island of New Guinea, 1682 – 1962. Both mountains get high marks for eco-diversity although knowledge of Arfak’s wildlife benefits from Odoardo Beccari’s (November 16, 1843 – October 25, 1920) and Luigi Maria D’Albertis’ (November 21, 1841 – September 2, 1901) expeditions in 1872.

The Vogelkop (“Bird’s Head”) Peninsula claims both the Arfak and Tamrau Mountains. It complements Bird’s Tail (Vogelstaart) Peninsula of southeasternmost New Guinea. It consists of mountainous, tropical rainforests whose surface geology involves:

• Limestone: Fakfak and Kumawa Mountains;
• Limestone, sandstone, volcanics: Arfak and Tamrau Mountains;
• Metamorphic: Wandamen-Wondiwoi Mountains.

Its mountain soils encourage growth of:

• Guinea white oak (Castanopsis acuminatissima);
• Moss-covered Antarctic beech (Nothofagus stylosa, womersleyi);
• New Guinea cypress (Papuacedrus papuana var. arfakensis) and podocarps (Dacrydium novo-guineense; Dacrycarpus cinctus, compactus, expansus, imbricatus; Podocarpus spathoides).

It falls within the following UNEP-WCMC (United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre) protected areas:

• Gunung Meja;
• Jamursba-Mandi;
• Mingima;
• Mubrani Kaironi;
• Pegunungan Arfak;
• Pegunungan Fakfak;
• Pegunungan Kumawa;
• Pegunungan Tamrau Selatan;
• Pegunungan Tamrau Utara;
• Wondiwoi.

Undisturbed primary forests and scrublands at altitudes between 3,280.84 and 6,561.68 feet (1,000 and 2,000 meters) above sea level are the habitats at which reclusive ringtails are adapted to live. Reclusive ringtails avoid competition over food, home ranges, and shelter with such fellow possums as:

• D’Albertis’ ringtails (Pseudochirops albertisii), at heights of 3,280.84 – 6,233.59 feet (1,000 – 1,900 meters) above sea level;
• Vogelkop ringtails (Pseudochirulus schlegeli), at heights of 2,460.63 – 6,233.59 feet (750 – 1,900 meters) above sea level.

They most likely follow folivorous (“leaf-eating”) diets, which may be supplemented by consumption of:

• Bark;
• Flowers;
• Fruits;
• Sap.

Each reclusive ringtail possum has a large, sacculated caecum (“pouch”) for re-ingesting feces to maximize access to:

• Energy;
• Nutrients, especially nitrogen;
• Water.

Coprophagy -- whose etymology combines the ancient Greek words κόπρος (copros, “feces”) and φαγεῖν (phagein, “to eat”) -- allows its practitioners to:

• Maximize nutrition, sanitation, and security;
• Minimize clean-up, detection, and energy.

It contributes to the reclusive ringtail’s environmental role as:

• Pest-controllers;
• Resource-recyclers;
• Seed-dispersers;
• Vegetation-monitors;
• Water-conservers.

It also enables females to:

• Bulk up for yearly commitments to breeding, delivering, and raising offspring from pouch-living, through maternal back-riding and nest-sharing, to physical and sexual emancipation;
• Decrease foraging during extreme weather, hunting seasons, and predatory incursions.

It involves 4 – 8+ hours of:

• Passing food through the digestive tract;
• Reversing from the large intestine for caeco-bacterial fermentation and simple sugar production;
• Vacating while sleeping days for nightly re-ingesting and re-vacating.

Details regarding reclusive ringtail life cycles baffle scientists because of the possum’s savvy wariness. Experts therefore base what is hypothesized or known from:

• 5 locales;
• 3 specimens;
• Trophy skulls;
• Village anecdotes.

The first official descriptions and scientific identifications indeed date back to 1897, with one of the 1,000+ publications and 2,000+ taxonomies effectuated by Millbrook-born British zoologist Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (February 21, 1858 – June 16, 1929). Current classifications still emphasize:

• Cephally-located, coronet-patterned markings unique to the reclusive ringtail’s head;
• Hallux (“big toe”) and pollex (“big toe”) respectively opposable to each clawed, flat-soled rear-paw and flat-palmed fore-paw.

These characteristics, not color, function as morphological (“structural”) identifiers of Pseudochirops coronatus, the “(human-like) false-handed,” “coronet (bearing)” reclusive ringtail possum.

And yet color assumes dominance in reclusive ringtail survival and sustainability. Reclusive ringtails blend with scrubby, woody habitats -- not by the copper- or gold-greenness of coppery (Pseudochirops cupreus) or golden plush-coated (Pseudochirops corinnae) ringtails -- but by silver-greenness similar to that of D’Albertis’ (Pseudochirops dalbertisii) and green (Pseudochirops archeri) ringtails. The greenness comes -- not from pigmentation -- but from sunlight traversing tree canopies covering 60 – 80% of the sky to warm grizzled, intermingled, interspersed, and mottled cephal (“head”) and corporeal (“body”) fur colors. Reclusive ringtails exhibit:

• Big, dark, rounded eyes;
• Black-brown-grey upper-sides;
• Black-brown-white lower-sides;
• Darkened limbs;
• Prehensile (“grasping”) tail tapering from a furry base, through a slide-resistant under-side, to a hairless, ring-curled tip;
• Small ears.

Reclusive ringtails do not defend themselves with:

• Clawed digits;
• Grasping tail, thumbs and toes;
• Teeth, with 6 incisors, 2 canines, 6 premolars, and 8 molars and with 4 incisors, 6 premolars, and 8 molars per respectively upper and lower jaws.

With adult weights of 3.31 pounds (1.5 kilograms), they employ:

• Scaling branches, forks and roots;
• Sharing resources with competitors;
• Sleeping lightly, with one eye opening regularly.

But active avoidance ends ineffectively against:

• Agro-industrialists reconfiguring wildland-urban interfaces;
• Hatam-, Meyah-, and Sougb-speaking villagers using arrows, bows, fires, and traps and welcoming flesh and fur for clothing, food, and instruments.

Protected homelands, scientific research, and visitor support therefore must keep Vogelkop’s Arfak Mountains safe for super-secretive, super-shy reclusive ringtail possums.

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

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:Reclusive_Ringtail_Possum_area.png

Collection Meise Botanic Garden (Dutch: Plantentuin Meise, French: Jardin botanique de Meise): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Odoardo_Beccari_1843-1920.tif

Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), Kepong, peninsular Malaysia central west coast: Patrice78500, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dacrycarpus_imbricatus.JPG

Wilhelm Peters and Giacomo Doria, Enumerazione dei mammiferi (1881), Tav. XI: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14843598

Wilhelm Peters and Giacomo Doria, Enumerazione dei mammiferi (1881), Tav. XII: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14843600

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

Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society of London for the Year 1884 (May 20), Plate XXIX, between pages 380-381: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/28690269; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PhalangistaArcheriSmit.jpg

Bird's Head (Indonesian: Kepala Burung, Dutch: Vogelkop) Peninsula, northwestern New Guinea: NASA World Wind, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birds_Head_Peninsula_NASA.jpg

John Gould, The Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent Papuan Islands, Vol. I, Plate XVII: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Astrapia_nigra.jpg; Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/53841715; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibr), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/48765552688/

Rendani Airport: YoshiPlanet, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rendai_Airport.jpg

Manokwari: West Papua's provincial capital, busy port, major tourist destination on Dore Bay, southwest Pacific Ocean: A. Rabin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manokwari.jpg

"Arfak Mountains." Papua Expeditions: Birding Hotspots. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.bird-watching-papua-adventure-travel.com/birdinghotspots/arfakmountains.html

Bassarova, M.; Archer, M.; and Hand, S.J. December 20, 2001. “New Oligo-Miocene Pseudocheirids (Marsupialia) of the Genus Paljara from Riversleigh, Northwestern Queensland.”Memoirs of the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 25:61-75.

Beccari, Odoardo. Malesia; raccolta di osservazioni botaniche intorno alle piante dell'arcipelago Indo-Malese e Papuano pubblicata da Odoardo Beccari, destinata principalmente a descrivere ed illustrare le piante da esso raccolte in quelle regioni durante i viaggi eseguiti dall'anno 1865 all'anno 1878. Volume Primo. Genova: Tipografia delRegio Istituto Sordo-Muti, 1877. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/44197982
• Available via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/malesiaracco118771883becc

Beccari, Odoardo. Malesia; raccolta di osservazioni botaniche intorno alle piante dell'arcipelago Indo-Malese e Papuano pubblicata da Odoardo Beccari, destinata principalmente a descrivere ed illustrare le piante da esso raccolte in quelle regioni durante i viaggi eseguiti dall'anno 1865 all'anno 1878. Volume secondo. Genova: Tipografia delRegio Istituto Sordo-Muti, 1884 - 1886. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/44197567
• Available via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/malesiaracco218841886becc

Bisby F.A.; Roskov Y.R.; Orrell T.M.; Nicolson D.; Paglinawan L.E.; Bailly N.; Kirk P.M.; Bourgoin T.; Baillargeon G.; Ouvrard D. (red.) 2011. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist. Species 2000: Reading, UK. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=709420&print_version=PRT&source=to_print

Boelens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; and Grayson, Michael. 2009. The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. JHU Press.

Conn, Barry J.; and Damas, Kipiro Q. 2005. Guide to Trees of Papua New Guinea: Tree Descriptions. National Herbarium of New South Wales and Papua New Guinea National Herbarium. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.pngplants.org/PNGtrees/

Duff, Andrew; and Lawson, Ann. 2004. Mammals of the World: A Checklist. Yale University Press. 

Earle, Christopher J. (Editor). The Gymnosperm Database. Retrieved on April 2, 2014. 

• Available at: http://www.conifers.org/index.php

Flannery, T.; Leary, T.; Singadan, R.; Menzies, J.; Wright, D.; Helgen, K.; Dickman, C.; and Salas, L. 2008. "Pseudochirops coronatus." In: IUCN 2013. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/40582/0

Flannery, Timothy F. 1994. Possums of the World: A Monograph of the Phalangeroidea. Chastwood, Australia: GEO Productions in association with the Australian Museum.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations Environment Programme. 1984. “Part II Country Briefs: Papua New Guinea.” Tropical Forest Resources Assessment Project (in the framework of the Global Environment Monitoring System – GEMS) – Forest Resources of Tropical Asia. UN 32/6.1301-78-04 Technical Report 3. Rome, Italy: Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, first printing 1981, second printing 1984. Retrieved on April 2, 2014. 

• Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ad908e/ad908e00.htm
• Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/ad908e/AD908E22.htm

Food and Agriculture Organization Forest Harvesting, Trade and Marketing Branch. 1998. “Appendix 1. List of Tree Species.” Forest Harvesting Case-Study 15: Forest Harvesting Operations in Papua New Guinea, The PNG Logging Code of Practice. Rome, Italy: Publishing and Multimedia Service, Information Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved on April 2, 2014. 

• Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/Y2711E/y2711e00.htm#TopOfPage
• Available at: http://www.fao.org/docrep/004/Y2711E/y2711e12.htm

Gansloßer, Udo. 2004. "Ringtail and Greater Gliding Possums (Pseudocheiridae)." Pp. 113-117 in Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia, Second Edition. Volume 13: Mammals II, edited by Michael Hutchins, Devra G. Kleiman, Valerius Geist, and Melissa C. McDade. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group, Inc., division of Thomson Learning Inc.

Gibbs, L.S. July 1917. Dutch N.W. New Guinea: A Contribution to the Phytogeography and Flora of the Arfak Mountains (Read before the Newcastle Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, September 1916). London: Taylor and Francis. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available via Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/stream/mobot31753000302528#page/iv/mode/2up

• Available via Botanicus.org at: http://www.botanicus.org/title/b11815000

Gould, John. 1863. Mammals of Australia. Volume I. London: John Gould.

Hoffman, Carl. 2014. Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.

Hume, Ian D. 1999. Marsupial Nutrition. Melbourne, Australia: Cambridge University Press.

Kennedy, Michael (Editor). 1992. Australasian Marsupials and Monotremes: An Action Plan for Their Conservation. International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

Kerle, Jean Anne. 2001. Possums: The Brushtails, Ringtails and Greater Glider. Sydney: University of New South Wales Australian Natural History Series. Retrieved on April 2, 2014. 

• Available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=YDM0hjAwchUC&lpg=PT65&dq=Petropseudes%20dahli&pg=PT66#v=onepage&q=Petropseudes%20dahli&f=false

Menkhorst, Peter; and Knight, Frank. 2001. A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 

Menzies, James. 5 June 2011. A Handbook of New Guinea’s Marsupials and Monotremes. University of Papua New Guinea Press.

Meredith, Robert W.; Mendoza, Miguel A.; Roberts, Karen K.; Westerman, Michael; and Springer, Mark S. March 2, 2010. “A Phylogeny and Timescale for the Evolution of Pseudocheiridae (Marsupialia: Diprotodontia) in Australia and New Guinea.” Journal of Mammalian Evolution17(2):75-99. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987229/

Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World, Sixth Edition. Volume I. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Nowak, Ronald M. 2005. Walker's Marsupials of the World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

"Papuan Montane Forest." Biome Explorer: Azonal Biomes>Montane Forests. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.biome-explorer.net/Montane%20Forest/Papuan%20Montane%20Forest.html

Pasveer, Juliette M. 2004. The Djief Hunters: 26,000 Years of Rainforest Exploitation on the Bird’s Head of Papua, Indonesia. London: Taylor & Francis Group Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 17.

Peters, Wilhelm, and Giacomo Doria. Enumerazione dei mammiferi raccolti da O. Beccari, L.M. d'Albertis ed A.A. Bruijn nella Nuova Guinea. (Estratto dagli Ann. del Mus. Civ. di St. Nat. di Gen., Vol. XVI [29-31 marzo 1881]: 665 - 707.) Genova: Tipografia del Regio Istituto dei Sordo-Muti, 1881. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14843569

Peters, Wilhelm, and Giacomo Doria. "Enumerazione dei mammiferi raccolti da O. Beccari, L.M. d'Albertis ed A.A. Bruijn nella Nuova Guinea." Annali dei Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova, Vol. XVI [29 marzo 1881]: 665 - 707. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/29845102

"Pseudochirops coronatus." Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.vertebrates.si.edu/msw/mswcfapp/msw/taxon_browser.cfm?msw_id=534

"Pseudochirops coronatus: Reclusive Ringtail." Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://eol.org/pages/1038003/details

Ride, W.D.L. 1970. A Guide to the Native Mammals of Australia. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 

Schaefer, Albrecht G. “New Guinea Forests: Still the Tropical Paradise.” World Wildlife Global>What We Do>Priority Places>New Guinea>The Area>Ecosystems>Forests. Retrieved on April 9, 2014.

• Available at: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/where_we_work/new_guinea_forests/area_forests_new_guinea/new_guinea_forests_ecosystems/forests_new_guinea/

Sillitoe, Paul. 2013. Managing Animals in New Guinea: Preying the Game in The Highlands. Routledge: Studies in Environmental Anthropology.

Strahan, Ronald; and Conder, Pamela. 2007. Dictionary of Australian and New Guinean Mammals. CSIRO Publishing.  

Thomas, Oldfield. 1897. "On Some New Phalangers of the Genus Pseudocheirus." Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova 18(2):142-146.

Thomas, Oldfield. 1897. "On the Mammals Collected in British New Guinea by Dr. Lamberto Loria." Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova 18(2):606-622. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available via Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/stream/annalidelmuseoci38muse#page/606/mode/2up

Tyndale-Biscoe, Hugh. 2005. Life of Marsupials. Collingwood, Victoria, Australia: CSIRO Publishing.

Wilson, Don E.; and Reeder, DeeAnn M. (editors). 2005. Mammal Species
of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed), Johns Hopkins University Press.

World Wildlife Fund (edited by Conservation Biology, Biodiversity, Ecology Topic Editor Mark McGinley. 18 November 2008 updated 13 October 3011. "Vogelkop Montane Rain Forests." The Encyclopedia of Earth. Retrieved on April 2, 2014.

• Available at: http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/156863/

Wrobel, Murray (Editor). 2007. Elsevier's Dictionary of Mammals: Latin English German French Italian. Oxford, U.K.: Elsevier B.V.