Quenda | |
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Quenda digging for arthropods. Beeliar Regional Park, Bibra Lake. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
Order: | Peramelemorphia |
Family: | Peramelidae |
Genus: | Isoodon |
Species: | |
Subspecies: | I. o. fusciventer
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Trinomial name | |
Isoodon obesulus fusciventer (J. E. Gray, 1841)
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The quenda (Isoodon obesulus fusciventer), also known as the southern brown bandicoot, is a small marsupial species[2] endemic to South Western Australia.
Though it is currently treated as a subspecies of the southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus), such as by the IUCN where it is given the status of least concern,[1] a 2018 paper proposed to raise it to species rank due to molecular and morphological analysis[3] which revealed it was more closely related to the golden bandicoot (Isoodon auratus).[4]
It is currently recognised as a separate species by ASM,[5] AFD,[6] ALA.[7]
Quenda are one of the few native marsupials that can still be seen in Perth's urban bushland reserves.[8] They are vulnerable to predation by feral foxes and cats and Quenda populations can recover where predators are controlled.[8]