Brush-tailed bettong

Scientific name: Bettongia penicillata

Country: Australia

Continent: Oceania

Diet: Fungi, roots - radicivore, seeds - granivore. In the wild these animals will also eat underground fungi and occasionally insects. At the Zoo we feed them on a mixture of fruit and vegetables, with mushrooms and corn on the cob being their favourite. Locusts are provided, which they have to catch and peanuts have to be extracted from the shells, as they would in the wild.

Food & feeding: Herbivore

Habitats: Temperate forest, temperate grassland.

Conservation status: Critically endangered

Relatives: Kangaroo, Tasmanian devil

Description: Bettongs grow to between 28 and 45 cm long, with a tail between 25 and 33 cm. They weigh between 1 and 1.5 kg and have grey fur with a paler underside. They have powerful front claws which they use to dig up food and powerful back legs, like a miniature kangaroo.

Lifestyle: Rather like a nocturnal rabbit, bettongs spend the nights nibbling roots and tubers, with a particular liking for mushrooms and fungi. They have a prehensile tail, capable of grasping, which they use to carry nesting material made up of grass and shredded bark. They use this material to make a spherical nest under a bush or fallen log. When moving around, these animals hop on their back legs, just like their relatives, the kangaroos and wallabys.

Family & friends: The bettong is a solitary animal that defends a small area around its nest, although the feeding ranges of neighbours may overlap.

Growing up: These animals breed throughout the year but can delay the development of the embryo if food is short. The gestation period is about 21 days and the single offspring leaves the pouch at about 13 weeks, reaching independence by 17 weeks. Females mature at 24 weeks and if conditions are ideal they can produce young every 14 weeks.

Conservation news: This marsupial was once widespread across southern Australia but numbers have become greatly reduced since the introduction of predators such as the red fox. A recovery plan was initiated and numbers are now increasing. Bettongs are being released onto small offshore islands or into fenced-off areas of mainland Australia where introduced predators can be kept out.

Bettongs belong to a group of mammals known as marsupials. Marsupials are different from other mammals because after they are born, the young are carried in a special pouch on the mother's belly. Marsupial young are tiny at birth, much smaller than other mammal infants, and must stay in the pouch, drinking the mother's milk for several weeks until they are able to walk around themselves.