Woylie
Woylie | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
Order: | Diprotodontia |
Family: | Potoroidae |
Genus: | Bettongia |
Species: | B. penicillata
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Binomial name | |
Bettongia penicillata J. E. Gray, 1837[3]
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Subspecies | |
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Historic woylie range in yellow, current range in red |
The woylie or brush-tailed bettong (Bettongia penicillata) is a small, critically endangered
Taxonomy
A species was first described by
The two subspecies recognised are:
- Bettongia penicillata penicillata J.E. Gray, 1837. The nominate subspecies, classified as a modern extinction. This was the south-eastern subspecies.[7]
- Bettongia penicillata ogilbyi (Waterhouse, 1841). This is the south-western subspecies.G. R. Waterhouse, who presented a manuscript prepared by John Gould. The type was collected at York, Western Australia.[8]
The common name, "woylie", is derived from walyu in the
Description
Bettongia penicillata is a species of
This species resembles the burrowing boodie (Bettongia lesueur), although the woylie is distinctly paler at the ventral side, and lacks the blackish colour of the boodie's tail. The ring around the eye of the woylie is pale, and its muzzle is longer and more pointed than the boodie, and less than Gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii), with which it once shared an overlapping distribution range.[11]
Distribution and habitat
The woylie is known to have once inhabited a wide range of habitats, including low arid scrub or desert
The dispersal of many
Population collapse
The woylie was originally found in great abundance across southern Australia, north to about 30°S, in a wide distribution range from the coast in the west and east toward the Great Dividing Range.[15]
The species was observed at all parts of the Swan River Colony when the field worker John Gilbert visited during its founding years. Gilbert noted woylies on the tidal flats of the Swan Coastal Plain and river itself, and their nests amongst clumps of grass and the hollows of trees, observing a preference for woodlands of Eucalyptus wandoo.[10] As late as 1910, the population was said to be well known in the Australian south-west, and interviews with older residents helped to establish the time and pattern of decline. The sudden demise of local populations near settlements across the state was noticed by the inhabitants, with most vanishing in the 1930s, while some persisted in a few regions until the 1950s.
The last sighting of a woylie, at
By the 1920s, the woylie was extinct over much of its range.[citation needed]
Changed fire regimes might also have played a part. The species suffered localised extinctions throughout its range, and was highly endangered by the 1970s.[citation needed]
Current
As of 2021[update], there are only two indigenous populations of woylies, one of which is in the
Diet
As with the
The austral summer and autumn seasons provide woylies with the fruiting bodies of
Woylies have been observed eating the large seeds of Australian sandalwood, Santalum spicatum, a nutritious food that the animal is known to place in a shallow cache for later consumption. The habit of caching the seeds is likely to have played an important role in the dispersal of the tree. However, Australian sandalwood was a commercially valuable tree, and was extensively cleared during colonisation. Populations of woylies introduced to an island off the coast of South Australia consume mainly plant material, tubers and roots, seeds and leaves, and beetles, a diet regarded as unusual for the species. Analysis of that colony's diet showed that it included fungal spores, as detected in their scats, although that is likely to have been an occupant of the guts of the beetles.[23]
Ecology
Woylies were well known to the
Native predators of the woylie include the wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax), a large raptor thought to have been a significant influence on their mortality.[10] The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and feral cat (Felis catus), which arrived with Europeans, are known to prey on this species, and both have been cited as a major cause of local extinctions. Since the control of the red fox, the cat has become the major predator of the species.[24][17]
Woylies are natural excavators, dubbed an "
Behaviour
Woylies are largely
The woylie builds its dome-shaped nest in a shallow scrape under a bush, and is able to curl its tail to carry bundles of nesting material. The nest, which consists of grass and shredded bark, sticks, leaves and other available material, is well made and discreet.
The species behaves in a characteristic way when disturbed at its nest, rapidly leaving the site with an explosive noise.[10] The body is arched as the animal hops away, with the head held low and the tail extended, using a bipedal motion in lengthy bounds to evade a potential predator.[11]
A broad foraging area is occupied by individuals, with a larger area for the male, and these will likely overlap with the larger range of other woylies. Within the range, each animal defends a smaller central territory which only overlaps between males and females. Several nests within a range may provide casual and communal accommodation; only a central nest site is defended to the exclusion of any other. Measurements of the nest territory and foraging ranges of individuals has given variable results. An early study at an open woodland suggested an area of 15 to 28 hectares around the nest site for the female and 28 to 43 ha for the male. The central range seemed to extend around the nest for 4 to 6 ha. A subsequent survey calculated an exclusive zone around the nest of 2 to 3 ha for the male, and the foraging area as 27 ha for the male and 20 ha for the female. An analysis of a radio-tracking survey also indicated a nest range of 2 to 3 ha, yet a smaller foraging range of 7 to 9 ha for the species.[27]
Conservation
Conservation efforts in the late 20th century concentrated on reintroducing woylies to sites in their former range, after controlling red foxes. By 1992, the woylie was reported from only four small areas in Western Australia. In 1996, it occurred in six sites in Western Australia, including Karakamia Sanctuary, run by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and on three islands and two mainland sites in South Australia, following a reintroduction program after foxes had been controlled.[citation needed]
Stable populations were established in places such as Venus Bay, St Peter Island and Wedge Island in South Australia, Shark Bay in Western Australia, and Scotia Sanctuary in New South Wales. As a result of those efforts, the woylie population rose to sufficient numbers that it was taken off the threatened species list in 1996. The total population of the species rose to 40,000 by 2001.[citation needed]
However, another sudden decline occurred in late 2001, and in just five years, the woylie population dropped to only 10-30% of its pre-2001 numbers. It was returned to the
By 2010, one of the remaining thriving habitats for the woylie was the
Despite those declines, woylies continued as small localised populations in predator-free sanctuaries, including a population established in 2010 at
The species has become established at a large fenced reserve at Western Australia's
As of 2020[update], plans were in place to reintroduce the species to the Pilliga Forest[35] in NSW, and to Dirk Hartog Island in WA.[36]
It is a key species in the faunal reconstruction project within the
References
- Claridge, A.W.; Seebeck, J.H.; Rose, R. (2007). Bettongs, potoroos, and the musky rat-kangaroo. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Pub. ISBN 9780643093416.
- ^ . Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
- ^ a b Gray, J.E. (1837). "Bettongia penicillata". Magazine of Natural History and Journal of Zoology, Botany, Mineralogy, Geology and Meteorology. 1 New Series (2): 584.
- ^ "Subspecies Bettongia penicillata penicillata J.E. Gray, 1837". Australian Faunal Directory. biodiversity.org.au. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
- ^ Claridge 2007, p. 5.
- OCLC 62265494.
- ^ a b Government of Western Australia, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (25 April 2022). "Woylie Fauna Profile" (PDF). www.dpaw.wa.gov.au. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Waterhouse, 1841., G.R. (1841). "The natural history of Marsupialia or pouched animals". In Jardine, W. (ed.). The Naturalist's Library. Mammalia. Vol. 11 (1 ed.). Edinburgh & London: W.H. Lizars & H.G. Bohn. p. 185.
{{cite encyclopedia}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Aboriginal Words in the English Language: L-Z". One Big Garden. 13 December 2011. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f Abbott, I. (2008). "Historical perspectives of the ecology of some conspicuous vertebrate species in south-west Western Australia" (PDF). Conservation Science W. Aust. 6 (3): 42–48.
- ^ ISBN 9780195573954.
- ^ Claridge 2007, p. 3.
- ISSN 0067-2238.
- ^ Claridge 2007, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Claridge 2007, pp. 14–15.
- .
- ^ a b c d Kennedy, Elicia (22 September 2019). "Numbats and woylies flourish at Dryandra after feral cats pushed WA icon towards 'extinction pit'". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
- ^ Claridge 2007, pp. 83–84.
- ^ a b Stephens, Kate (4 April 2021). "Meet the woylie, an eco-engineer bringing life back to degraded ecosystems". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ Claridge 2007, p. 104.
- Northern Territory Government - Department of Land Resource Management. Archived from the original(PDF) on 19 May 2014. Retrieved 19 May 2014.
- ^ Claridge 2007, pp. 116–117.
- ^ Claridge 2007, p. 108.
- S2CID 84854873.
- ^ Claridge 2007, p. 66.
- ^ a b "Woylie (Bettongia penicillata)". Shark Bay World Heritage Area. Government of Western Australia - Department of Parks and Wildlife. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
- ^ Claridge 2007, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Leonie Harris (7 October 2008). "Woylie marsupial under threat". 7.30 report.
- Department of the Environment.
- ISSN 0030-6053.
- ^ Wadderin
- ^ "Endangered Woylies increasing at Mt Gibson". AWC - Australian Wildlife Conservancy. 2 July 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
- ^ "Woylies make a historic return to the Northern Territory". AWC - Australian Wildlife Conservancy. 5 August 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- ^ "Woylies reintroduced to Mallee Cliffs National Park". AWC - Australian Wildlife Conservancy. 9 February 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2022.
- ^ "Benchmarking AWC's progress at two NSW National Parks". AWC - Australian Wildlife Conservancy. 15 May 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
- ^ "Woylie (Brush-tailed Bettong)". Shark Bay. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
- ^ Kilvert, Nick (31 January 2019). "Rewilding project to create 'great southern ark' over former mine, farmland". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ "Great Southern Ark project renamed Marna Banggara". WWF-Australia. 27 November 2020. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
- ^ Corvo, Shannon; Radford, Luke; Lysaght, Gary-Jon (7 November 2019). "Controversial wire fence splits peninsula to keep native animals in, pests out". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
- ^ a b Johnson, Sarah (28 July 2022). "Endangered bettongs complete 2,000km journey to new home in South Australia". Marna Banggara. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
- ^ "Bettongs doing well on SA mainland". 7NEWS. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- ^ Cominos, Christian (1 August 2022). "Brush-tailed bettongs flown from Western Australia get a new home on the Yorke Peninsula". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
- ^ Cominos, Christian (20 June 2023). "Yorke Peninsula's brush-tailed bettong population continues to grow". ABC News (Australia). Retrieved 26 June 2023.