hi in the northern mountains on the
island of New Guinea in the cloud forest
lives an elusive animal found nowhere
else in the world hello with an
endearing face and thick affair the Matt
cheese tree kangaroos of Papua New
Guinea are only found on the islands two
on Peninsula and they’re endangered
threats include a growing human
population and subsistence hunting tree
kangaroos for a long time have been part
of the local diet they are difficult to
study because of the remoteness of their
habitat and they spend most of their
lives high in the rainforest canopy 70
to 100 feet above the ground just
getting to their home isn’t easy first
the area is inaccessible by vehicle so
researchers need a small plane landing
on a bumpy airstrip in the village of
yahwah
then it’s a two-day hike through dense
forests up and down steep mountain
ridges even once you get there they are
extremely difficult to find local
hunters and trackers provide the
critical skills to locate these elusive
animals dr. lisa de Becque is director
of the tree kangaroo conservation
program based at Woodland Park Zoo in
Seattle oh and then she’ll home because
that’s what she did when she came to
study this endangered marsupials for
more than 20 years tree kangaroos spend
most of their time high up in the trees
and so we are not able to see what
they’re doing up there that’s why she’s
asked for the help of the National
Geographic critter cam this critter cam
for the tree kangaroo is completely new
we’ve been working with National
Geographic for the last few years trying
to figure out a way to have a small
enough critter cam to put on a tree
kangaroo it takes a team of experts for
this project scientists veterinarians
and the local hunters these are the
local landowners who used to hunt tree
kangaroos but now they are helping us
with our research so they are the best
people to find the tree kangaroos in the
forest tree kangaroos really hide in the
trees you you might be able to see that
the the moss on the trees are the very
same color as the tree kangaroos
themselves and tree kangaroos tend to
hide in the moss
they look like plush toys up in the
branches but they’re very well adapted
for the cloud forests with the thick fur
and then they have long claws for
climbing the trees and then they have
their long tail for balancing themselves
but they can also leap down from the
trees onto the ground and not hurt
themselves he needs to be a clear
position like this okay when one is
spotted there are no tranquilizer darts
or anesthesia used a hunter will climb
the tree the kangaroo is on and pokes it
to leap to the ground
below other hunters clear brush and wait
for the moment it might go looks like
there it goes
Papua New Guinean Gabriel Porlock
handles the captured male he is the tree
kangaroo conservation program research
coordinator and a key figure in the
local preservation effort think six kill
the captured animal is weighed and
examined by veterinarian Carol Essen and
then the critter cam collar is fastened
into place okay alright and then the
animal is released for the next few days
the animal will have a new role as a
critter cam videographer what the
researchers found was more than they
ever dreamed of seeing it’s way beyond
my wildest imagination it actually
brought tears to my eyes when these
animals go so high up in the in the
trees that you cannot know what they do
unless you have a camera on them and now
we can see that the critter cam recorder
is on a timer so it records short
segments at different times of the day
scratching
grooming eating as he scales one old
tree branch to another you can see the
lush vegetation mosses and orchids that
serve as a smorgasbord some nine
different species of plants the tree
kangaroo eats so you get this view all
the way down to the ground from it’s
probably about a hundred feet up and
then it was sunrise it was about 6 a.m.
or so because that’s when we think that
they feed and in fact that’s when we saw
in the video that he was feeding but
then he looked out and it was the
sunrise which was amazing the team
captured a second kangaroo this one a
female they’ve been tracking for three
years
named Trish and this time she has a baby
Joey developing in her pouch when Trish
was set free with a camera she collected
video from a female perspective
including one segment where she is seen
cleaning her pouch the forest where
these tree kangaroos live is pristine
and it will hopefully stay that way as
the local population has agreed to set
it aside as a conservation area
de Becque helped enlist the local
population that she says is crucial to
the efforts to save this species this
first Crittercam tree kangaroo project
was funded through the National
Geographic Society on weight grant
program this is an incredible tool we
can now see what the animals are eating
up in the canopy which we never could do
before and see what how they’re moving
in the trees and at what time of day
know if great the project was a success
for tree kangaroo research and also a
crucial test for the new critter camp
with this smaller system critter cam
will be opening windows into the hidden
lives of many new species
island of New Guinea in the cloud forest
lives an elusive animal found nowhere
else in the world hello with an
endearing face and thick affair the Matt
cheese tree kangaroos of Papua New
Guinea are only found on the islands two
on Peninsula and they’re endangered
threats include a growing human
population and subsistence hunting tree
kangaroos for a long time have been part
of the local diet they are difficult to
study because of the remoteness of their
habitat and they spend most of their
lives high in the rainforest canopy 70
to 100 feet above the ground just
getting to their home isn’t easy first
the area is inaccessible by vehicle so
researchers need a small plane landing
on a bumpy airstrip in the village of
yahwah
then it’s a two-day hike through dense
forests up and down steep mountain
ridges even once you get there they are
extremely difficult to find local
hunters and trackers provide the
critical skills to locate these elusive
animals dr. lisa de Becque is director
of the tree kangaroo conservation
program based at Woodland Park Zoo in
Seattle oh and then she’ll home because
that’s what she did when she came to
study this endangered marsupials for
more than 20 years tree kangaroos spend
most of their time high up in the trees
and so we are not able to see what
they’re doing up there that’s why she’s
asked for the help of the National
Geographic critter cam this critter cam
for the tree kangaroo is completely new
we’ve been working with National
Geographic for the last few years trying
to figure out a way to have a small
enough critter cam to put on a tree
kangaroo it takes a team of experts for
this project scientists veterinarians
and the local hunters these are the
local landowners who used to hunt tree
kangaroos but now they are helping us
with our research so they are the best
people to find the tree kangaroos in the
forest tree kangaroos really hide in the
trees you you might be able to see that
the the moss on the trees are the very
same color as the tree kangaroos
themselves and tree kangaroos tend to
hide in the moss
they look like plush toys up in the
branches but they’re very well adapted
for the cloud forests with the thick fur
and then they have long claws for
climbing the trees and then they have
their long tail for balancing themselves
but they can also leap down from the
trees onto the ground and not hurt
themselves he needs to be a clear
position like this okay when one is
spotted there are no tranquilizer darts
or anesthesia used a hunter will climb
the tree the kangaroo is on and pokes it
to leap to the ground
below other hunters clear brush and wait
for the moment it might go looks like
there it goes
Papua New Guinean Gabriel Porlock
handles the captured male he is the tree
kangaroo conservation program research
coordinator and a key figure in the
local preservation effort think six kill
the captured animal is weighed and
examined by veterinarian Carol Essen and
then the critter cam collar is fastened
into place okay alright and then the
animal is released for the next few days
the animal will have a new role as a
critter cam videographer what the
researchers found was more than they
ever dreamed of seeing it’s way beyond
my wildest imagination it actually
brought tears to my eyes when these
animals go so high up in the in the
trees that you cannot know what they do
unless you have a camera on them and now
we can see that the critter cam recorder
is on a timer so it records short
segments at different times of the day
scratching
grooming eating as he scales one old
tree branch to another you can see the
lush vegetation mosses and orchids that
serve as a smorgasbord some nine
different species of plants the tree
kangaroo eats so you get this view all
the way down to the ground from it’s
probably about a hundred feet up and
then it was sunrise it was about 6 a.m.
or so because that’s when we think that
they feed and in fact that’s when we saw
in the video that he was feeding but
then he looked out and it was the
sunrise which was amazing the team
captured a second kangaroo this one a
female they’ve been tracking for three
years
named Trish and this time she has a baby
Joey developing in her pouch when Trish
was set free with a camera she collected
video from a female perspective
including one segment where she is seen
cleaning her pouch the forest where
these tree kangaroos live is pristine
and it will hopefully stay that way as
the local population has agreed to set
it aside as a conservation area
de Becque helped enlist the local
population that she says is crucial to
the efforts to save this species this
first Crittercam tree kangaroo project
was funded through the National
Geographic Society on weight grant
program this is an incredible tool we
can now see what the animals are eating
up in the canopy which we never could do
before and see what how they’re moving
in the trees and at what time of day
know if great the project was a success
for tree kangaroo research and also a
crucial test for the new critter camp
with this smaller system critter cam
will be opening windows into the hidden
lives of many new species
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