Dendrolagus bennettianus De Vis 1887

16.

Bennett's Tree Kangaroo

Dendrolagus bennettianus

French: Dendrolague de Bennett / German: Bennett-Baumkanguru / Spanish: Canguro arboricola de Bennett

Other common names: Bennett's Tree-kangaroo, Dusky Tree Kangaroo, Tree-wallaby

Taxonomy. Dendrolagus bennettianus De Vis, 1887,

Daintree River, Queensland, Australia.

This species in monotypic.

Distribution. NE Queensland from Daintree River N to beyond Cooktown, and W to Mt Windsor Tableland.

Descriptive notes. Head-body 72-74.8 cm (males) and 54-70.5 cm (females), tail 82-84-65 cm (males) and 63.1-83 cm (females); weight 11.5-13.4 kg (males) and 6-3—-10-6 kg (females). Large, dark, long-footed, long-tailed tree kangaroo. Dark brown, face grayish, head, neck and shoulders reddish-brown, lighter brown on flanks and limbs, but feet and paws black. A single hair whorl on dorsal midline well below shoulders. Tail long, cylindrical, and dark brown with terminal brush, blackish ventrally, paler on proximal dorsal surface, and black at base. Diploid chromosome number is 14.

Habitat. [Lowland rainforest, vine forest, and gallery forest, as well as montane rainforest, from sea level to 1400 m elevation.

Food and Feeding. Folivorous; consumes primarily leaves from a selection (more than 30 species) of forest trees and vines, as well as a few epiphytes. Fruit, both ripe and unripe, and flowers are also occasionally consumed.

Breeding. Poorly known. Sexual maturity in females is reached at c¢.24 months and in males at ¢.36 months. Females breed annually and produce a single young, mostly in summer at start of wet season. Young spend around nine months in the pouch and remain with the mother until 2-2-5 years old. Significant sexual size dimorphism suggests intense competition among males for access to females.

Activity patterns. Nocturnal, typically resting during day high up (25-40 m) in canopy of large, often vine-covered trees, on a broad horizontal branch or on a vine tangle. May bask in morning sun during winter. Leaves daytime roost within two hours of nightfall. Feeds during night often in middle story and in low trees (shorter than 15 m). May spend several hours browsing in a single tree. Largely arboreal, but regularly comes to ground to move around home range and visit feed trees. Males more active than females, and regularly patrol their territories and visit resident females.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Primarily solitary, except for mothers and young. Favored resting trees tend to be in center of home range, with same resting site rarely used on consecutive days. Home ranges of both sexes are exclusive, with males especially territorial and aggressive toward each other. Males often carry wounds inflicted during fights. Home range (100% minimum convex polygon) estimates are 6—40 ha for males and 7-8 ha for females. Territories of males overlap those of two or three females. A subadult male was recorded dispersing 5 km from his natal home range.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Near Threatened on The IUCN Red List. Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo is cryptic, but appears to be relatively common within a highly restricted distribution. It may be increasing in some areas as a consequence of cessation of hunting by Aboriginal people. Some suitable habitat in lowlands has been lost owing to clearing for agriculture and residential development. Although much of its habitat is now in protected areas, habitat loss and fragmentation, which increase vulnerability to predation by domestic and feral dogs, remain a threat in some lowland areas. This macropodid is occasionally held in captivity, but there is currently no known captive population. Additional research on distribution, abundance, general ecology, and reproduction is required.

Bibliography. Flannery et al. (1996), Hayman (1989), Johnson (2003), Martin, R.W. (1992, 2005), Martin, R.W. & Johnson (2008), Newell (1999a, 1999b), Winter, Burnett & Martin (2008a), Woinarski et al. (2014r).