An amateur botanist from the United Kingdom has captured the first-ever photographs of the Wondiwoi tree kangaroo. These critically endangered species disappeared from the scientific record in 1928 and were feared extinct. The discovery has been recirculating online, sparking renewed discussion around the topic.
Michael Smith, 47, photographed the rare marsupial during an expedition in July 2018 into the dense bamboo forests of the Wondiwoi Mountains in West Papua, Indonesia. The discovery represents only the second confirmed sighting of the species in recorded history.
“It’s such a remote and difficult spot to access that I was uncertain we would ever know” if the species still existed, said Mark Eldridge, a marsupial biologist at the Australian Museum in Sydney who was not involved in the expedition but confirmed the find.
The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo was first documented by legendary evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr in 1928. Mayr shot what became the only specimen known to science and sent its pelt to the Natural History Museum in London, where it was formally described as a species, Dendrolagus mayri, in 1933.
For the next 90 years, the animal vanished completely. No Western scientists reported seeing it, and by the 2000s, many quietly labeled it as possibly extinct. The species is listed among Global Wildlife Conservation’s 25 most-wanted lost species.
Smith, who trained as a biologist and now works for a medical communications company, spends his vacations searching remote regions for rare plants and animals. He initially traveled to the Wondiwoi Mountains in 2017 searching for rare rhododendrons but learned about the tree kangaroo from local sources.
“I decided I’d come back for another look, another expedition the next year,” Smith told CBC Radio.
During his 2018 expedition, Smith and a local hunter spent 10 days trekking through extremely difficult terrain. The area is covered in thick bamboo forest at elevations between 1,500 and 1,700 meters, where conditions are punishing.
“It’s hard work. You got sweat beads in your eyes and leeches in your boots and you slip around and it rains all the time,” Smith said. “That might have deterred people a little bit, I suppose. It’s no walk in the park.”
As they climbed higher, the team began finding evidence of tree kangaroos: distinctive scratch marks on tree trunks left by the animals’ powerful claws, occasional droppings, and a characteristic scent.
“We could also smell the scent marks left by the kangaroos — a sort of foxy smell,” Smith said.
On one of the final days of the expedition, as the crew prepared to descend, their local hunter spotted a kangaroo approximately 30 meters up in the forest canopy.
“After a lot of scrambling around trying to get my lens to focus on the animal peeking out from behind the leaves, I got a few half-decent shots,” Smith said.
The photographs show a stocky, bear-like marsupial with golden-brown fur, a curled tail, and strong forearms adapted for climbing. The markings and coloring match the 1928 specimen’s pelt housed in London.
Before going public with his discovery, Smith reached out to world experts on tree kangaroos, including Eldridge and Roger Martin of James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. The experts confirmed the animal’s identification based on its distinctive coat coloring and physical features.
“Knowing the animal still exists provides a great opportunity to gather more information, since we know virtually nothing about it, as well as to ensure its survival,” Eldridge told National Geographic.
Tree kangaroos are tropical marsupials closely related to ground-dwelling kangaroos and wallabies. The unusual animals look something like a cross between a bear and a monkey, with muscular forearms and long claws that allow them to pull themselves high into trees. There are 17 species and subspecies in total, living in northern Australia and New Guinea.
The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo is believed to inhabit an extraordinarily isolated habitat spanning just 40 to 80 square miles in the Wondiwoi Peninsula. The closest mountains that reach the same preferred altitude are several hundred miles away. Local hunters rarely venture above 1,300 meters due to the difficult terrain.
The species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with fewer than 50 individuals estimated to remain in the wild. Major threats include hunting, habitat loss from deforestation, logging, and a proposed gold mine that could overtake the montane region.
“The tree kangaroo is walking a tightrope at the moment and it could be genuinely extinct within a few years if things go wrong,” Smith told his local newspaper, the Alton Post Gazette.
Smith plans to return to collect tree kangaroo scat for DNA analysis to definitively confirm the species identification. He said he feels a special responsibility to help ensure the animal’s survival.
“I’ve accidentally been the first person to meet with this animal for 90 years,” he said. “I suppose I’ve just got to try and make sure that the very few tree kangaroos left survive for another 90.”
Tim Flannery, a zoologist at the University of Melbourne who authored “Tree Kangaroos: A Curious Natural History,” called the discovery a great breakthrough and noted that the species likely remained hidden for so long because its habitat is restricted to such a small, remote area.
Conservation groups are calling for further expeditions, local community engagement, and habitat protection efforts. The Wondiwoi tree kangaroo has become a symbol for preserving Papua’s unique biodiversity.
“Rediscoveries like this remind us that extinction should never be declared lightly,” one conservationist said. “They also remind us that protecting what we cannot yet fully see may be our greatest responsibility.”
Although this discovery was made in 2018, TikTok videos and Instagram Reels have resurfaced, bringing new attention to the discovery and renewed hope for preserving our natural world.
