Boodie

Boodie[1]
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[3]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Marsupialia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Potoroidae
Genus: Bettongia
Species:
B. lesueur
Binomial name
Bettongia lesueur
(Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)
Subspecies
Boodie range
(brown — native, pink — reintroduced)

The boodie (Bettongia lesueur), also known as the burrowing bettong or Lesueur's rat-kangaroo,[4] is a small, furry, rat-like mammal native to Australia. Once common throughout the continent, it is now restricted to a few coastal islands. A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it lives in burrows and is active at night when it forages for fungi, roots, and other plant matter. It is about the size of a rabbit and, like most marsupials, carries its young in a pouch.

Before European settlement, it was the most common macropod in Australia (a group that includes kangaroos, wallabies, and other Australian mammals). Competition and predation by introduced rabbits, cats, and foxes, as well as habitat loss, pressured the population. It was declared a pest in the 1900s and was wiped out by the 1960s; however, the loss of the boodie and other ground-foraging animals has degraded soil quality. Populations persisted on three west coast islands (Bernier, Dorre, and Barrow), and the boodie has been reintroduced to the mainland since the 2000s.[5]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference msw3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference iucn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference HeirissonProject2005 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sander1997 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).