[3] With a body and head length of 20 to 32 inches (51–81 cm), Matschie's tree-kangaroo are much smaller than Australia's well-known red kangaroo.

Gestation lasts 44 days and joeys of captive bred individuals leave the pouch after 11 months.

[5] The Matschie's tree-kangaroo is golden on its ventral side, lower parts of its limbs, ear edges, belly, and tail, and the rest of its body is a chestnut brown colour, except for usually having a dark stripe down its back.

When kept in zoos, it feeds on apples, carrots, yams, corn on the cob, celery, kale/romaine, high fiber monkey biscuits, tofu, hard boiled eggs, and various types of tree boughs (elm, willow, etc.).

In the wild, researchers have found most Matschies' live alone or in small assemblies, containing maybe a mother and her offspring and one male.

The Matschies' prefer to live in deciduous forests and tropical rainforests because they remain in trees for most of their days.

[8] They mainly live in the northeast interior of New Guinea and their home range sizes consists of about 25 hectares of the area.

[7] It was also found that they have eaten chickens in captivity as well as feeding on a variety of plants, carrots, lettuce, bananas, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, and yams.

[7] Their digestion is similar to that of the ruminants; they have a large, tubiform forestomach, where most of the fermentation and breakdown of tough material takes place at; in the hind stomach, there is a mucosa lining with many glands that help absorption begin here.

The female oestrus cycle is between 54.2 and 56.8 days and tree kangaroos are able to produce young at 2 to 2.5 years of age.

[13] Mating occurs when a female advances on a male while on the ground; they touch each other's noses and click their tongues.

[14] The Matschie's tree-kangaroos have no embryonic diapauses or delayed implantations and are able to get pregnant as soon as the joey leaves the pouch.

They are strongly committed to building up the population because Matschies' are the most widely exhibited species in zoos around the world.

Scientists are still trying to learn more about Matschie's tree-kangaroos and are conducting studies to watch and help the populations in the wild.

[9] In 2009 the YUS Conservation Area has been established to protect the habitat of Matschies' in the northern part of the Huon Peninsula.

YUS stretches over 760 km2 (290 sq mi) and includes three rivers: Yopno, Uruwa and Som, after which it was named.

This difference with allele frequencies shows the changes that can happen over time like genetic drift and mutation when a species is taken out of its natural habitat.