Bettongs: Characteristics, Behavior and Reproduction | Sea Life, Islands and Oceania

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BETTONGS

Bettong species: 1) Rufous Bettong (Aepyprymnus rufescens), 2) Burrowing Bettong (Bettongia lesueur), 3) Eastern Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi), 4) Brush-tailed Bettong (Bettongia penicillata), 5)Northern Bettong (Bettongia tropica)

Bettongs are species that belong to genus Bettongia, which is in the potoroine family of marsupials. They were once common in Australia and are regarded as important ecosystem engineers — “organisms that modify, maintain, create or destroy structure within the physical environment”. Their numbers have dramatically declined since the arrival of Europeans as a result of altered fire regimes, land clearing, pastoralism and introduced predatory species such as foxes and cats.

There are five recognized species of bettongs: 1) Eastern bettongs (Bettongia gaimardi); 2) Woylies (Brush-tailed bettongs) (Bettongia penicillata); 3) Burrowing bettongs (Bettongia lesueur); 4) Northern bettongs (Bettongia tropica); and 5) Rufous bettongs (Aepyprymnus rufescens).

Two betting species have gone extinct relatively recently. Nullarbor dwarf bettongs (Bettongia pusilla) are known only from subfossil remains, probably became extinct after the arrival of Europeanss. Desert bettings *Bettongia anhydra) were described in 2015 from a specimen collected in 1933 near Lake Mackay, Northern Territory.

Bettongs can be distinguished from one another mainly by their behavior. Woylies, which are similar in appearance to burrowing bettongs, for example, do not inhabit burrows and are not gregarious. The same is true of northern bettongs (Bettongia tropica). Food habits also differ between Bettongia species. Some bettongs to use their hind limbs to thump the ground to warn others of danger. [Source: Jeffery Mayfield, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

Potoroidae: Bettongs, Potoroos, and Rat Kangaroos

Potoroidae is a family of marsupials that embraces bettongs, potoroos, and rat kangaroos. They are closely related to kangaroos and wallabies (Macropodidae) and sometimes grouped as a subfamily within that family. Potoroidae embraces nine or ten species in four or five genera. They are all found in Australia. Like macropods, these small and secretive animals are diprotodont (having two large, forward-pointing incisors in their lower jaw) and syndactyl (have fused together toes). Several members of this family have not fared well following the arrival Europeans. Two species are believed to be extinct and two additional species are currently threatened with extinction. [Source: Phil Myers, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

bettong ranges (clockwise starting upper left: 1) Brush-tailed Bettong (Bettongia penicillata), historic range in orange, some of their present range in red; 2) Eastern Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi); 3) close up of Eastern Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) range; 4) Northern Bettong (Bettongia tropica); and 5) Rufous Bettong (Aepyprymnus rufescens) in eastern Australia

Phil Myers wrote in Animal Diversity Web: Also like macropods, they have enlarged hind feet and powerful hind limbs. At high speeds they are adept hoppers. At slower speeds, their movement is more rabbit-like; they land with their weight on their forelimbs as well as hind, then transfer weight to the hindlimbs for the next hop. The forelimbs are smaller than the hindlimbs, but the disparity in size is not as great as in kangaroos and wallabies. As in the case of macropod hind feet, the fourth toe is the longest and strongest. It sits in a line with main limb elements and transmits thrust of hopping. It is not as well developed, however, as the fourth toe in macropods. The tail is semiprehensile.

The dental formula of potoroids is 3/1, 1-0/0 2/2, 4/4 = 32-34. The second and third upper incisors are small and placed lateral to and behind the first incisor, not lateral as in macropods. In other respects, the skull is similar to that of kangaroos. Canines are present and well-developed. The molars are stationary, that is, they don't show pattern of forward movement with aging that is seen in macropods. Young potoroids and macropods have two upper and lower premolars that are replaced in adulthood by a single, large, blade-like premolar in both jaws. |=|

Members of this family are omnivores (animals that eat a variety of things, including plants and animals) and herbivores (animals that primarily eat plants or plants parts), feeding mainly on underground fungi and tubers also taking some seeds and insects. They have a well developed marsupial pouch that opens anteriorly. Their reproductive pattern includes an embryonic diapause (temporary suspension of development of the embryo) like that of macropods. Their stomachs are less elaborately pouched than those of macropods; instead, they are unspecialized in some species and with a few simple chambers (with bacterial fermentation) in others. |=|

Burrowing Bettongs

Burrowing bettongs (Bettongia lesueur) are also known as boodies and Lesueur's rat-kangaroos. About the size of a rabbit and weighing slightly more than kilogram, they spend their days in extensive burrow system that sometimes contain over a hundred individuals and come out at night to search for food such as fungi, roots, and other plant matter. Like most marsupials, they carry their young in a pouch.

Burrowing bettongs were once common throughout Australia but are now restricted to a few coastal islands. On they past they could be found in all suitable habitats throughout mainland Australia, yet by the early 1960s had become extinct on the mainland and could only be found on the islands of Bernier and Dorre in Shark Bay, and Boodie Island and Barrow Island near the Pilbara coast. Burrowing bettongs used to live on Dirk Hartog Island, but have gone extinct from there as well. [Source: Jeffery Mayfield, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

Burrowing bettong

When burrowing bettongs were still going strong on the mainland, they inhabited a variety of habitats, including open eucalypt woodlands with grass and shrub under story to sand ridge desert. On the islands they currently inhabit they are also found in a variety of habitats including areas consisting of shrubs, grasses and herbs. On Bernier and Barrow islands they show no habitat preference. On Dorre Island they prefer coastal dunes and habitats dominated by Triodia. Burrowing bettongs build extensive burrows in areas with stony soils throughout their current distribution, but used to build burrows in sandy soils on the Australian mainland.

Only a few thousands burrowing bettongs remain. They occupy less than one percent of their former range, mainly Populations on Barrow Island are estimated to be around 5,000. Populations on Faure Island fluctuate between 650 and 3,400. On the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, burrowing bettongs are listed as Near Threatened; On the U.S. Federal List they are classified as Endangered. In CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) they are in Appendix I, which lists species that are the most endangered among CITES-listed animals and plants. The decline of burrowing bettongs has mainly been attributed to predation by introduced foxes and feral cats. Other reasons include competition from rabbits, reducing food availability, fires that have reduced vegetation of lowland shrubs, which are bettongs primary food source, and human hunting and pest reduction.

Burrowing Bettong Characteristics and Diet

Burrowing bettongs are small, stocky marsupials that look sort of like rats and have a body similar to kangaroos. They range in weight from 0.4 to 1.8 kilograms (0.9 to 4 pounds) and have a head and body length of 37 to 44 centimeters (14.6 to 17.3 inches), with a 30-centimeter (one foot) tail. Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is present: Males are larger than females. Males weigh 0.4 to 1.8 kilograms (0.9 to 4 pounds); and females weigh 0.5 to 1.7 kilograms (1.1 to 3.9 pounds).[Source: Jeffery Mayfield, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

Burrowing bettongs are light yellow to grey on their back and sides, with a grey underbelly. They have short, rounded ears and thick, lightly haired tails, much like those of kangaroos. They move using their hind limbs and only use their fore limbs and tail for support when stationary Their weakly prehensile tails can be used for gathering nest materials.Burrowing bettongs can be distinguished from other bettongs mainly by their behavior, but also by their coloration. They often have a light yellow coloration on top while other species have a light grey coloration. They are endothermic (use their metabolism to generate heat and regulate body temperature independent of the temperatures around them) and homoiothermic (warm-blooded, having a constant body temperature, usually higher than the temperature of their surroundings). |=|

Burrowing bettongs are generally herbivores (eat plants or plants parts) but also recognized as folivores (eat leaves), frugivores (eat fruit), granivores (eat seeds and grain) and omnivores (eat a variety of things, including plants and animals). Among the plant foods they eat are roots, tubers seeds, grains, nuts, fruit and flowers. When available they mainly eat the green parts of plants and are very fond of figs and fungus. They use their sense of smell to find food. Animal foods include termites and marine animal carcasses.

Burrowing Bettong Behavior and Reproduction

range of burrowing bettongs

Burrowing bettongs are fossorial (engaged in a burrowing life-style or behavior, and good at digging or burrowing), nocturnal (active at night), motile (move around as opposed to being stationary), sedentary (remain in the same area) and social (associates with others of its species; forms social groups). Burrowing bettongs forage alone, rather than in feeding aggregations even though they live together in their warrens. Males can be aggressive toward other males in protecting their harems, while females are generally docile. Burrowing bettongs communicate with touch, sound and chemicals usually detected by smelling and sense using vision, touch, sound and chemicals. They locate food using their keen sense of smell. Both sexes are very vocal, using a variety of grunts, hisses, and squeaks to communicate. But exactly what they sounds mean is not completely understood. [Source: Jeffery Mayfield, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

Burrowing bettongs are the only member of the family Potoroidae that are gregarious and live year round in burrows. to inhabit burrows year round. They spend all day in their burrows, coming out after sunset and returning to their burrows before sunrise. Burrows are made in stony soils and nests are constructed in burrows with grasses. Grasses are carried with the help of their long, muscular tails. These burrows can be simple to complex, with some having as few as two entrances; and others as many as 91 and many interconnected passages. Generally, for every two entrances to a warren there are estimated to be two individuals. Burrowing bettongs dig with the aid of their forefeet. Home ranges radiate out anywhere from 60 meters to two kilometers surrounding denning sites. Some individuals have been known to travel farther than this in search of food but such occurrences are rare.

Burrowing bettongs are polygynous (males have more than one female as a mate at one time) and engage in embryonic diapause (temporary suspension of development of the embryo). Breeding occurs throughout the year. The average gestation period is 21 days. The usually number of offspring is one; rarely two. Males maintain harems within their warrens and can be are aggressive toward one another in defense of females. Females tend to be non-aggressive, but have been observed being aggressive towards females outside of their warrens. Oestrous lasts approximately 23 days. Lactation causes embryonic diapause to occur. While one young is in the pouch, another will not be born until the pouch young has either been weaned or has been lost. This allows the mother to have three young relying on her at one time: one weaned but still under care, one in her pouch, and one still in development.

Young, called joeys, are altricial, meaning they are relatively underdeveloped at birth. Parental care is largely provided by females. They carry young in their pouch like kangaroos. The involvement of males in parenting is limited to the protection of females and their offspring in their harems. The average weaning age is 115 days. Joeys accompany their mother in foraging until their independence, at around 180 days. On average males and females reach sexual or reproductive maturity at age five months.

Eastern Bettongs

Eastern bettong in Tasmania

Eastern bettongs (Bettongia gaimardi) are also known as Tasmanian bettongs, southern bettings and balbo in the language of the Ngunnawal, an Aboriginal people who used to keep them as pets. Eastern bettongs are native to southeastern Australia and Tasmania. The subspecies on mainland Australia (B. g. gaimardi) was once found in southern New South Wales and Victoria along the coast but is now extinct, but populations of the Tasmanian subspecies (B. g. cuniculus) have been reintroduced there.

Eastern bettongs is found in grasslands, grassy woodlands, dry eucalyptus forests, and sclerophyll (hard leaf) forests at elevations up to 1000 meters (3280 feet). Predation and habitat destruction in the early 1900s wiped out Eastern bettongs in mainland Australia and has restricted them to their current range, which includes most of the eastern half of Tasmania. [Source: Melissa Gallego, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

On the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Eastern bettongs are have been listed as Near Threatened since 1996. On the U.S. Federal List they are classified as Endangered. In CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild) they are in Appendix I, which lists species that are the most endangered among CITES-listed animals and plants.

Eastern bettongs are protected in Tasmania and are considered vulnerable because only five percent of their habitat lies within the bounds of national parks or other protected land. The remainder of their habitat is on private land which can be altered at the whims of owners. Competition with rabbits introduced to Tasmania also poses a threat. Hunting, loss of habitat and introduced predators such foxes and cats drove bettongs to extinction on the mainland. At one time they were so plentiful they were regarded as pests and there were reward for their hides. Today, foxes and cats are not as much of an issue on Tasmania as they are on the mainland.

Eastern Bettong Characteristics and Diet

Eastern bettongs have a small, compact body. They range in weight from 1.2 to 2.3 kilograms (2.6 to 5 pounds), with their average weight being 1.7 kilograms (3.7 pounds). They have a head and body length of 31 to 33 centimeters (12.2 to 13 inches). Their tail is slightly longer than their head and body length. Their average basal metabolic rate is 3.578 watts (389 cubic centimeters of oxygen per gram per hour). The lifespan of these bettongs in the wild is typically three to six years. They have lived up to 11.8 years in captivity. Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is present but not pronounced. Males are slightly longer and thinner than females. [Source: Melissa Gallego, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

Eastern bettong on the move

Eastern bettongs have the longest and lightest-colored fur of all bettong species. Their fur is light brown with white flecks and lighter on their belly. The long tail gradually gets darker from base to tip. The hair is slightly longer on the tail and has white tips, a distinguishing characteristic of Eastern bettongs. Digits II and III are fused together, the same as kangaroos. Adult female Eastern bettongs have four teats and a forward opening pouch. A resting, non-lactating female has a basal metabolic rate of approximately 229 kJ/day or 0.51 grams of oxygen per hour. Body temperatures vary with time of day and with estrus cycle, but typically fall between 36.2°C (midday) and 37.5°C (midnight). Eastern bettongs sweats to cool off, using sweat glands on its hind limbs, at the base of the tail, and inside the female’s pouch.

Eastern bettongs are mainly mycophagous (eat fungi). Fungi may comprise as much as 80 percent of the diet. Other foods may be eaten, but fungi are preferred and unless it is scare. Animal foods include insects. Among the plant foods they eat are leaves, roots, tubers, wood, bark, stems fruit sap or other plant fluids. Eastern bettongs forages by hopping slowly using all four limbs and often uses the forelimbs to dig for food.

Eastern Bettong Behavior

Eastern bettongs are terricolous (live on the ground), saltatorial (adapted for leaping), nocturnal (active at night), motile (move around as opposed to being stationary), sedentary (remain in the same area) and territorial (defend an area within the home range). A female’s average territory is 35 to 55 hectares (86 to 136 acres). Males typically have slightly larger territories. Males in captivity establish dominance hierarchies if housed together. [Source: Melissa Gallego, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

Eastern bettongs are usually solitary except during the mating season and when females are with young. They builds several nests on their territory and individuals have been known to use five or six nests at a time. Their semi-prehensile tail is used to pick up and carry grasses or brush for nesting and while foraging. Eastern bettongs often uses its forelimbs to dig for fungi, forage for other food sources, or when moving slowly, but it relies mostly on its larger hind limbs for fast movements like escaping from predators. The tail is held off the ground and is used as a counterbalance weight.

Eastern bettongs sense using vision, touch, sound and chemicals usually detected with smell and communicate with touch, sound and chemicals and leave scent marks produced by special glands and placed so others can smell and taste them and Adult female Eastern bettongs make “tsk-tsk” sounds to call their young back to the pouch. Males and females use scent glands near the anus to mark territories.

Eastern Bettong Mating, Reproduction and Offsping

Eastern bettongs are polygynous (males have more than one female as a mate at one time), employ delayed implantation (a condition in which a fertilized egg reaches the uterus but delays its implantation in the uterine lining, sometimes for several months) and engage in embryonic diapause (temporary suspension of development of the embryo). Breeding can occur year round and often takes place immediately after a females gives birth. There is a minimum of 106 days between births, assuming that neither the joey nor the embryo is lost. The average gestation period is 21 days. Usually one offspring is born. Harsh environment conditions may limit breeding in the wild.[Source: Melissa Gallego, Animal Diversity Web (ADW) |=|]

The estrus cycle of Eastern bettongs lasts 22 to 23 days. Estrus itself lasts one night, though mating may occur several times during that single night. Females don’t allow males near them except while in heat or while the males check the female for estrus by sniffing. If the male takes too long to do this females sometimes kick and hiss until the male leaves. Using delayed implantation and embryonic diapause, females may have one young leaving and re-entering the pouch, another suckling, and a third offspring in utero waiting to implant. This allows for continuous reproduction with offspring at all stages of development, and allows for fast replacement of young should one be lost. The estrus cycle is 1.5 days shorter in a pregnant female so that she gives birth just before releasing another egg. Before birth, the pouch muscles tighten so that older offspring cannot re-enter it. The female’s reproductive tract also lacks a birth canal, which forms just before birth and degenerates after birth. It is re-formed for every offspring. Males are atypical for macropods because they do not have a forked penis. Females can produce one offspring per gestation but because a female can produce up to three young per year, she can have as many as 10 to 15 young in her lifetime.

Parental care is provided by females. Young are altricial, meaning they are relatively underdeveloped at birth. They are born ectothermic (“cold blooded”) and blind. They gradually attain the ability to produce metabolic heat and open their eyes shortly before they first emerge from the pouch. Young stay in the pouch for 105 days. The average weaning age is 155 days, with independence occurring the next day. Females and males reach sexual or reproductive maturity at eight to 12 months and males do so at 12 months.

Brush-Tailed Bettongs

Brush-tailed bettongs (Bettongia penicillata) are also known as woylie, bis and yalgiri in the language of the Narungga People. Describing as "mini kangaroos on steroids", tThey move around by hopping, are active at night, digging for fungi to eat, and carry their young in a pouch. Once widespread, brush-tailed bettongs mostly died out from habitat loss and introduced predators such as foxes and feral cats. They currently restricted to two small areas in southwest Australia. There were two subspecies: B. p. ogilbyi in the west, and the now-extinct B. p. penicillata in the southeast.

When they were widespread at the time of Arrival of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries, brush-tailed bettongs favored open forests and woodlands. A main characteristic of the habitats they occupy now in Western Australia is a clumped, low understory of tussock grasses or clumped, low, woody shrubs When food resources are adequate, density of cover has traditionally been the limiting factor on population size. These days it is the presence of foxes. The last remaining populations of brush-tailed bettongs in southwest Western Australia are in the Perup and Dryandra forests and the Tuttanning Reserve, which are actively managed and have implemented measures to control foxes. [Source: Animal Diversity Web (ADW)]

Brush-tailed bettong

Brush-tailed bettongs are about the size of a rabbit, ranging in weight from 1.1 to 1.6 kilograms (2.4 to 3.5 pounds). Their head and body length ranges from 30 to 38 centimeters (12 to 15 inches) and their tail is 29 to 36 centimeters (11.4 to 13.2 inches) long. Their body is yellowish-grey on the back and sides and paler on their belly. The feet of Brush-tailed bettongs are pale brown with bristly hairs not concealing the claws. Its long tail has a prominent black crest along the final third or two-thirds of the upper surface. The undersurface of its tail is pale brown. Sexual Dimorphism (differences between males and females) is not present: Males and females are similar in appearance and size. Their average basal metabolic rate is 3.132 watts. |=|.

"They're like a little, ankle-sized kangaroo,” Derek Sandow, an ecologist with the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board in South Australia, told AFP. "They've got really powerful hind legs, they carry their young in their pouch, like a kangaroo does, but they're only a kilo and a half (three pounds)." [Source: Sascha Pare, Live Science, May 24, 2023]

Brush-Tailed Bettongs Behavior, Diet and Reproduction

Brush-tailed bettongs are motile (move around as opposed to being stationary), nocturnal (active at night), and solitary except during the mating season and when females have young. They forage from dusk until an hour or two before dawn and are relatively slow-moving, except when disturbed, when they hop with their heads held low, backs arched, and tails extended. Brush-tailed bettongs occupy individual home ranges of about 20 to 40 hectares (50 to 100 acres), each including a nesting and a feeding area. Nesting areas are believed to be individually defended but the feeding areas of animals in neighboring ranges sometimes overlap considerably. Brush-tailed bettongs spend the day in their elaborate domed nests made of grass or shredded bark, built over a shallow depression dug in the ground, under a bush or other cover . Each nest measures about 15 x 20 x 20 centimeters (5.9 x 7.9 x 7.9 inches) and has a dry weight of about 500 grams (1.1 pounds). Individuals may have several nests in their but how the bettongs use doesn’t follow a discernable pattern. The long tail of Brush-tailed bettongs is used to carry nesting material.[Source: Animal Diversity Web (ADW)]

Brush-tailed bettongs do not drink water or eat any green plant material. They are primarily fungivores (eat fungi). They prefer underground fungi but also eat bulbs, tubers, seeds, insects and resin from Hakea shrubs. They tend to eat more fungal material in the summer and than in the autumn. To get the fungi Brush-tailed bettongs dig it up. It is estimated that they turn over two to six tons of soil per year. The digging aerates the soil, improves water filtration and helps seedlings germinate – benefitting other animals that rely on the ecosystem. Fungi is deficient in amino acids, which mammals in particular need. Brush-tailed bettongs get around this by utilizing the fungi directly. Bacteria in the large sacculated fore-stomach digest the fungus, and these bacteria and their by-products, which constitute a more balanced diet, are themselves digested in the posterior part of the stomach and small intestine .

Brush-tailed bettong range: Historic (yellow), current (red)

Brush-tailed bettongs breed throughout the year and can give birth three times a year. Their gestation period is 21 days. Usually, a single undeveloped young is born. Young (joeys) have a relatively short pouch life of about 98 days. After emerging from the pouch, young accompany their mother, sharing her nest until the next infant vacates the pouch and displaces it. While sharing the nest, the young continues suckling. A female gives birth to its first young at the age of about six months and approximately every 100 days after that for the rest of her life, which is about four to six 4-6 years. Embryonic diapause (temporary suspension of development of the embryo) may be employed. |=|

Brush-tailed bettongs look cute but their behavior doesn’t always match On conservationist told National Geographic, "When a brush-tailed bettongs is small it's quite nice. It’s just a bundle of fur. Once it gets bigger it's all teeth and claws." Appearance-wise mothers can be particularly mean to their young, flinging them out of their pouch when chased by a predator to divert their attention, sacrificing the joey so she can escape. "It sounds like horrible parenting," Sandow told AFP, but it fits into the way they reproduce. "They can basically have their baby ready to go in their back pocket, and then replace it," Sandow said. [Source: Sascha Pare, Live Science, May 24, 2023]

Comeback of Endangered Brush-Tailed Bettongs

On the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, brush-tailed bettongs they are listed as Critically Endangered. They are no longer present in much of their former range are now found only in a few localities in southwest Western Australia and placs they have been reintroduced. Brush-tailed bettongs once inhabited more than 60 percent of mainland Australia. Since the arrival of Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries, their numbers have declined mainly as a result of being preyed upon by feral cats and foxes, nut also by the destruction of much of the animal’s native grassland and woodland habitats. Between 1999 and 2010, the species’ population size declined by 90 percent — a sharp drop that may have occured from the spread of blood parasites, alongside other factors. Red Fox control at several sites in southwest Australia has resulted in substantial population increases of Brush-tailed bettongs (up to 400 percent) as well as increases in their range. They have been introduced to several islands in South Australia, but only two of these islands are capable of maintaining viable populations in the long-term. [Source: Animal Diversity Web (ADW)]

Between 2021 and 2023, conservationists reintroduced about 200 brush-tailed bettongss to the Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park in South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, near Adelaide, as part of a conservation project known as Marna Banggara. In 2023, the scientists began trapping the animals — luring them in with peanut butter and oats — and discovered that 45 percent of them were newborns, according to the World Wildlife Fund, indicating that the populations were thriving in the area. About 93 percent of females that were studied had newborns in their pouches. [Source: Hannah Getahun, Business Insider, May 21, 2023]

Sandow is part of a team of wildlife researchers that have tagged and reintroduced the brush-tailed bettongs to the Yorke Peninsula The new arrivals were translocated from nearby Wedge Island and from the Upper Warren region of Western Australia, and was coordinated with Noongar and Narungga Traditional Owners. A 25-kilometer predator-control fence was set up across the narrow part of the Yorke Peninsula to create a 150,000-hectare safe haven. "On the southern Yorke peninsula, we've actually got geography on our side," Sandow told ABC Radio Adelaide. "We've got a foot-shaped peninsula, ocean on three sides. We've built a predator management fence across the ankle, just to slow the movement of foxes and cats, but we're operating in a working landscape, so there's towns and farms, and we're trying to demonstrate that with a reduction of these threats, we can actually bring back these really vulnerable native species." [Source: Sascha Pare, Live Science, May 24, 2023]

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org , National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, Australian Museum, David Attenborough books, Australia Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated July 2025