Ailurops or bear cuscuses, is a genus of cuscuses in the Phalangeridae family. The bear cuscuses are arboreal marsupials that live in the upper canopy of tropical rainforests. Almost nothing is known of their status and ecology. Although some scientists assign all populations to one species, Ailurops ursinus, others place melanotis as its own species. The genus is distinct, though, and some authorities place it within its own subfamily, Ailuropinae. It is found only on some of the islands of Indonesia (and Sulawesi), which are culturally part of Asia, where marsupials are generally not found but which are biogeographically part of the Australasian ecozone. It is hypothesized that the isolation of the bear cuscuses on the island of Sulawesi in the Miocene accounts for the animal's morpholog