Sulawesi Bear Cuscus

Fascinating facts about the Sulawesi Bear Cuscus

• In South Sulawesi, researchers found that only 12,119 hectares (30,000 acres), or less than 1% of the total studied area, was considered suitable habitat for the cuscus, and much of which was found in small, often disconnected patches. The same study reported land-use change for mining operations increased sixfold from 2005-19, while the southern part of South Sulawesi has lost 12.5% of its forests between 2000 and 2023, with more than half of this decline occurring since 2015. These numbers illustrate how mining booms and rapid deforestation are carving the cuscus's world into isolated islands, threatening its long-term survival.
• The bear cuscus was legally protected in Indonesia from 1999 to 2018, even after its reclassification from the name Phalanger ursinus in 1987. When the government refreshed its protected-species list in 2018, only the critically endangered A. melanotis was retained, leaving A. ursinus without legal safeguards. This loss of formal protection accelerates the species' decline despite its already vulnerable status.
• It lives in tropical moist lowland forest at elevations up to 600 m (2,000 ft) and is diurnal, folivorous and often found in pairs. One specimen was observed adopting a raised posture while making short, harsh chattering and clicking sounds. Ailurops ursinus tends to live in pairs or groups of three to four, and a great proportion of the day is spent resting or sleeping, with little time devoted to feeding and grooming and even less to social interactions.
• Bear cuscuses can feed on the young leaves of up to 31 different species of plants varying from trees, lianas, and mistletoes. Feeding only amounts to about 5% of their daily activity, compared to about 63% spent on resting.
• Average mass 7 kg 15.42 lb and the prehensile, unfurred tail is half of the total body length and is used in conjunction with the forefeet (which have two opposable digits) and syndactylous hindfeet to move between trees.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Mongabay
• Wikipedia
• Animal Diversity Web

At a glance

About the Sulawesi Bear Cuscus

In the lush, emerald canopies of Sulawesi's rainforests, the bear cuscus moves with languid ease, its shaggy fur a testament to its arboreal existence, as it pads silently along branches with a slow, deliberate gait. With eyes that gleam like dark, polished onyx, this enigmatic marsupial surveys its domain, a master of the twilight world, where the rustle of leaves and the creak of bark are the only sounds that accompany its nocturnal wanderings. As it climbs, its prehensile tail coils and uncoils, a supple counterbalance that allows it to navigate the dense, tropical foliage with effortless precision.

Sulawesi Bear Cuscus photographed on Feravox

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