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Habitat
Pseudochirulus mayeri or pygmy ringtail possum lives in Indonesia and New Guinea in montane forest regions. They are “widespread along the Central cordillera” and live at elevations “rang[ing] from 1,500 to 3,600 m asl [meters above sea level].” Pygmy ringtails are herbivores or “arboreal folivores” who eat pollen, lichen, fungus and “epiphytic moss." P. mayeri also eat bark of trees, which provide them with calcium, and potassium.  They have “large incisor” teeth that help with “clipping forage from plants” and have “selenodont molars” that help with “shredding ingested foliage." They have “an enlarged cecum that acts as a fermentation chamber” and allows, “gut bacteria to breakdown plant tissue." The extra retention time allows the pygmy ringtail to obtain more nutrients from the ingested forage.

Characteristics
The Pseudochirulus mayeri are very small with the male being slightly smaller than the female. The average female weight is 154.5 grams ranging from 105-206 grams while the average length is 372 mm long within a range of 330-400mm. The male weighs approximately 149 grams ranging between 115-178 grams and an average length of 344 mm within a 318-369mm range in length. Their life expectancy in the wild is approximately 4 or 5 years. These specific pygmy ringtails have “cinnamon brown to dark brown” fur with a visible “bluish-gray undercoat” when they move. Their tail has thick brown hair on top while calloused and hairless underneath. Pseudochirulus mayeri also have “an opposable first toe on their hind feet, and their second and third toes are syndactylus.”

The P. mayeri live in dreys, or nests, “in the forks of trees, less than four meters off the ground.” These nests consist of foliage similar to moss and lichen and they enter into “state[s] of partial torpor” during the day. Therefore, they “are nocturnal, solitary, arboreal herbivores” that do not travel far at night from their drey because they are small and slow moving. P. mayeri can use sound to communicate. For example, young P. mayeri “use a twitter-like call when in search of their mother and make a screeching noise as an alarm call.” However,they mainly communicate with one another through their olfactory. For example, males produce a pheromone in the sternal gland that "[deter]s other males" while both females and males "establish home ranges" or "display reproductive status [using] feces and pheromones."

Predators
P. mayeri's main predators are owls specifically the greater sooty owl, Papuan hawk-owl, eastern grass-owl and rufous owl. They also tend to be “hunted by indigenous peoples” who live near their habitat. However, they are not sufficiently hunted to be considered threatened.

P. caroli

P. caroli has a “patchy distribution in the western Central Cordillera of the islands of New Guinea” and is “known from four localities west of the Star Mountains. P. caroli, or Weyland ringtail tends to live in montane forest or other hilly areas. Currently the Weyland Ringtail is not endangered, but should be “monitored [because] it could rapidly become threatened if either human encroachment or hunting were to increase significantly.”

Ecological Problems
P. herbertensis, is found “in the rainforests of north-eastern Queensland between the Mount Lee area, west of Ingram, and Lamb.” The P. herbertensis or Herbert River Ringtail’s diet mainly consists of leaves with high levels of protein. Some secondary food sources are pink bloodwood, cadaghi, bumpy satinash and white basswood. Pink bloodwood and cadaghi are two different types of Eucalyptus trees. Since the P. herbertensis diet consists of these Eucalyptus trees, “Ecologist John Kanowski of the Rainforest Cooperative Research Centre at Atherton” believes P. herbertensis is one of “seven rare marsupials” threatened by global warming. Kanowski believes that both the Herbert River Ringtail Possum and Daintree River Ringtail Possum are at risk because the increased temperatures from global warming force them and other marsupials to retreat up the mountains thus “reducing [their] area of favorable habitat.” However, Kanowski is more worried about the increase in Carbon Dioxide (CO2) levels. When CO2 levels increase, it leads to a change in the metabolic process of trees thus “chang[ing] the balance of protein in their leaves” and leading to an increase in production of tannins by the tree. This is problematic because “tannins can potentially inhibit the ability of leaf eating animals to digest protein; [and] at high concentrations, tannins are actually toxic.” Therefore, while ‘’P. herbertensis’’ may seem secure, their dependency on the rainforest “makes them vulnerable to habitat destruction.”