Animals you probably didnt know exist - Dingiso Tree Kangaroo/Bondegezou (Dendrolagus mbaiso)
The Dingiso Tree Kangaroo, also called the Bondegezou or Bakaga, is a Marsupial from the kangaroo family in the genus Dedrolagus, the tree kangaroos.
They are enedemic to West Papua, more precisely the Cloud forests in the Sudirman range.
Despite being a tree kangaroo the Dingiso is mostly terrestrial, living in a mossy and rocky enviroment.
The Dingiso has a dark brownish to black fur with white markings around the snout and a small white spot on the forehead. They have a large white mark going from chin to belly, possibly also covering part of the inner front and back legs. In illustrations the Dingiso is shown to have a white tail with dark stripes, but all pictures show a dark tail with some of them having a small amount of white from the large marking on their belly.
Since the Dingiso only lives in a specific location they are one of the most endangered tree kangaroo species. Their habitat has been vanishing for road constructions and expansion for industrial use like palm oil.
Another threath are the dogs and hunters that end up way deeper into their habitat because of the newly constructed roads.
A certain number of how many animals remain hasnt been calculated, but its likely not more than a couple thousands, and could even be as low as a couple hundreds.
The indegious people, Moni, consider the Dingiso a sacred animal and have been protecting them for generations. They see the animal as a forest guardian or ancestral spirit and forbid their people to harm them.
IUCN: Endangered
Class : Mammalia
Infraclass : Marsupialia
Order : Diprotodontia
Family : Macropodidae
Genus : Dendrolagus
Species : D. mbaiso
picture and information sources:
Instagram · thewildbrothers
https://es.paperblog.com/el-dingiso-reciente-descubrimiento-en-nueva-guinea-4966583/
https://tenkile.com/dingiso-tree-kangaroo/
https://gordoneaglesham.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/the-dingiso/
https://palmoildetectives.com/tag/dingiso-dendrolagus-mbaiso/