Macleay's dorcopsis
species of mammal
Macleay's dorcopsis (Dorcopsulus macleayi), also known as the Papuan dorcopsis or the Papuan forest wallaby, is a species of marsupial in the family Macropodidae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea, where its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forest. Being little threatened by habitat destruction, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as being of "least concern".
Taxonomy
Macleay's dorcopsis was first described by the Russian biologist Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay who named it Dorcopsulus macleayi in honour of the Australian naturalist William John Macleay. It is the type species of the genus. Some authorities consider it to be the same species as the small dorcopsis (Dorcopsulus vanheurni), which has a much wider distribution in New Guinea, but Groves (2005) supports its status as a separate species.
Description
The species is a small, nocturnal forest wallaby with an average weight of about 3 kg (7 lb) and fur that is dense and dark brown to black. It differs from D. vanheurni in having about two-thirds to three-quarters of its tail covered with fur, compared to one half in D. vanheurni.
Distribution
Macleay's dorcopsis is endemic to the southeastern part of the island of New Guinea. It is found in hilly areas and lower montane slopes at altitudes of between 1,000 and 1,800 m (3,300 and 5,900 ft) where it occurs in both primary and secondary tropical moist forest.
The public source identifies “Macleay's dorcopsis” as species of mammal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Macleay's, dorcopsis and species.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q209742. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2005.
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This entry incorporates text from “Macleay's 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.