Dendrolagus goodfellowi goodfellowi, Thomas, 1908

Eldridge, Mark D. B., Potter, Sally, Pratt, Renae, Johnson, Rebecca N., Flannery, Tim F. & Helgen, Kristofer M., 2024, Molecular systematics of the Dendrolagus goodfellowi species group (Marsupialia: Macropodidae), Records of the Australian Museum 76 (2), pp. 105-129 : 117

Dendrolagus goodfellowi goodfellowi

Thomas, 1908

Common name. Goodfellow’s Tree-kangaroo

Holotype. BMNH 8.10 .10.1, adult male, skin and damaged skull. Mt Obree , Owen Stanley Range, Papua New Guinea.

Other material examined. AM M.29227, BMNH 50.1433; PNGM 22888 (see below).

Distribution. Dendrolagus goodfellowi goodfellowi is patchily distributed in south-eastern Papua New Guinea, where it is recorded from Central, Oro, and Milne Bay Provinces, in lowland and mid-montane forest from sea-level to 2,400 m elevation ( Flannery, 1993; Flannery et al., 1996). The subspecies appears uncommon and is very poorly represented in museum collections. Its distribution is likely to have been profoundly restricted by hunting by people.

The type is from 2,400 m elevation on Mt Obree in the Central Cordillera (Thomas, 1908), today located in the border area of Central and Oro (Northern) Provinces of Papua New Guinea. It is absent from the Central Cordillera north of Mt Obree, between English Peaks in the Kokoda area and the Wharton Range ( Flannery et al., 1996). This may well mean there is a geographic gap between the range of D. g. goodfellowi and the south-eastern limit of the distribution of D. g. buergersi , which is situated in Morobe Province ( Groves 1982). Other records apparently from Central Province include “armlets” made for a boy, collected in Kalo, Central Province, presumably representing D. g. goodfellowi (in the anthropological collections at the University Museum in Cambridge; Flannery et al., 1996: 184), and a captive individual that was held at Moitaka and later accessioned at PNGM (PNGM 22888). Most records are from outlying ranges and isolated peaks on the northern margins of the Central Cordillera in Oro Province, including from the Ajule Kajale Range (a low range lying north of, and isolated from the Central Cordillera by the Mambare River, north of Kokoda) ( Flannery et al., 1996), Mt. Victory (AM M.29227) and Cape Nelson. On a visit to Cape Nelson in January 2011 one of us (TF), was informed by villagers that the species existed at sea level in deeply shaded rainforest on steep limestone slopes and cliffs at the heads of drowned river valleys on the Cape. Much of Cape Nelson is anthropogenic grassland, with rainforest remnants in the valleys and coastal margin, so the survival of D. goodfellowi there is notable. In Milne Bay Province it is recorded from “mountains of SE New Guinea, behind the island of” Samarai, which is located off the far southeastern tip of mainland New Guinea (BMNH 50.1433; Laurie, 1952), and one of us (KMH) saw an individual of D. g. goodfellowi held captive in Alotau in January 2003.

Description. Dendrolagus g. goodfellowi is morphologically similar to D. g. buergersi but appears to be larger, possibly with a longer tail ( Table 4), and is paler and less distinctly marked ( Fig. 6 ) ( Eldridge & Coulson, 2015).

Remarks. As a species D. goodfellowi is listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List (Leary et al., 2016a). The nominate subspecies is rarely reported, poorly represented in museum collections and little is known of its biology.

Figures

Figure 6. Comparison of pelage variation across taxa in the Goodfellow’s group. Left to right: D. g. buergersi (AM M.17213), D. g. goodfellowi (AM M D. matschiei (AM M.6062), and D. spadix (AM M.17212).