Talaud Bear Cuscus

The Talaud bear cuscus is a phalangerid marsupial restricted to Salibabu Island in Indonesia’s Talaud group. Its English name reflects its heavy, bear-like build rather than a relationship to bears. The short species account opened for this work places it in tropical dry forest and records a strong musky odour when the animal is alarmed. Field research published in Biodiversitas describes it as endemic to the Sangihe and Talaud Islands of North Sulawesi (Wikipedia and Repi et al. 2019, general species accounts).

A three-month study on Salibabu found that observed animals spent 78.19% of their time resting and 14.98% moving, with feeding, grooming and social activity occupying much smaller shares. Researchers recorded 22 food plants: young leaves were the largest component, followed by leaf stalks, mature leaves, buds, flowers and unripe fruit. These figures describe the study animals and site rather than every population, but they provide the clearest published picture of this cuscus’s daily routine and strongly leaf-based diet (Repi et al. 2019).