Thursday, 12 August 2010

favourite wiki of the week


Bondegezou or Dingiso (Dendrolagus Mbaiso) - a whistling tree kangaroo. The reason I liked this guy so much is that the Moni people of Papua New Guinea revere the bondegezou as an ancestor. They say that when they come across one in the jungle, it will raise its arms and whistle at them, as a sign of their kinship.

The Moni protect them, so although they are sometimes hunted by other peoples, they remain relatively common in Moni areas. 'Mbaiso' in its Latin name is Moni language, meaning the 'forbidden animal'.

Although it's a tree kangarou, Bondegezou spends a lot of time on the ground, so it appears quite different to other tree kangaroos due to its longer, thinner bones. It also has a thicker coat as it lives in subalpine forest at elevations of up to 4200 meters.

Anyway they are cute little guys, who are quite tame (so unfortunately easy to hunt for the non-Moni), and they are the revered ancestors of the Moni tribe.

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