Suspected kangaroo smuggler arrested in Indonesia

An Indonesian man has been arrested on suspicion of smuggling 10 rare kangaroos from their native habitat of New Guinea island.

Five were dead when the man was caught off-loading the marsupials in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya, police there said.

It was not clear which species of kangaroo were found. They are also native to Australia.

The five surviving animals were given to an animal sanctuary.

The Dingiso is currently (2003) listed as a vulnerable species. It is endemic to Indonesia. It was first discovered by an Australian named Dr Tim Flannery in 1987. He roamed the mountains in New Guinea and discovered four new varieties of tree kangaroo. He named this Dendrolagus mbaiso, referring to it as “It’s a beautiful thing, and no biologist had ever seen one before.” Flannery describes the Dingiso as “none was as unusual as Dingiso and none such an interesting evolutionary and culturual story to tell.”