Small dorcopsis
species of marsupial in the family Macropodidae
The small dorcopsis or lesser forest wallaby (Dorcopsulus vanheurni) is a species of marsupial in the family Macropodidae. It is found in the mountainous interior of West Papua and Papua New Guinea. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests. It is less common than it used to be and the IUCN has assessed it as being "near threatened".
Names
It is known as sgaw in the Kalam language of Papua New Guinea.
Distribution and habitat
The small dorcopsis is endemic to the island of New Guinea, being present in hill and upland habitats in the central mountain chain, at altitudes between 800 and 3,100 metres (2,600 and 10,200 ft). It used to occur in the Schrader Range, the Hunstein Range and the Torricelli Mountains but no longer does, and it may no longer be present in the Adelbert Range. Its natural habitat is both primary and secondary forests, and forest glades, and it is often found near streams. Each animal has a home range of one to one and a half hectares.
Use as food
The small dorcopsis is one of a number of species of animal used by the Etolo people as food.
“Small dorcopsis” enters the record as species of marsupial in the family Macropodidae. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Small, dorcopsis and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q209624. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Small dorcopsis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.