The woylie or brush-tailed bettong (Bettongia ogilbyi) is a small, near threatened mammal native to forests and shrubland of Australia. A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it moves by hopping and is active at night, digging for fungi to eat. It is also a marsupial and carries its young in a pouch. Once widespread across southern Australia, the woylie mostly died out from habitat loss and introduced predators such as foxes and feral cats. It is currently restricted to two small areas in Western Australia. There are four subspecies: both B. o. ogilbyi, and B. o. sylvatica, are extant and occur in small populations in the southwest, while B. o. odontoploica, and B. o. francisca are extinct.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Waterhouse (1841) as Hypsiprymnus ogilbyi. The type was collected at York, Western Australia. Originally this taxon was described as a subspecies of Bettongia penicillata by Finlayson, before taxonomic reassessment aligned it with Bettongia ogilbyi. The regional variants amongst Nyungar peoples are noted as wol, woli and woylie. The spelling woylie, and its variants, were used for the species in reports and advertisements in Western Australian newspapers, and the spelling 'woylye' was added in the 1920s.

Diet

As with the Potoroos and other Bettongia species, the woylie has a largely fungivorous diet and will dig for a wide variety of their fruiting bodies. Although it may eat tubers, seeds, insects, and resin exuded from Hakea laurina, the bulk of its nutrients are derived from underground fungi, which it digs out with its strong fore-claws. The fungi can only be digested indirectly. They are consumed by bacteria in a portion of its stomach. The bacteria produce the nutrients that are digested in the rest of the animal's stomach and small intestine. When it was widespread and abundant, the woylie probably played an important role in the dispersal of fungal spores within desert ecosystems. This bettong was also hunted by Indigenous Australians, being one of their most favourite articles of food. In 2011 the species was reported as living mostly in open sclerophyll forest and Mallee Woodlands and Shrublands eucalypt assemblages, with a dense low understorey of tussock grasses. The reintroduction of control programs for predators saw the species successfully conserved at sites including Perup, Tutanning and the Dryandra Woodland reserves. It was reintroduced to large fenced landscapes at Newhaven in the Northern Territory in August 2021 and to Mallee Cliffs National Park in NSW in September 2021.

, plans were in place to reintroduce the species to the Pilliga Forest in NSW, and to Dirk Hartog Island in WA.

It is a key species in the faunal reconstruction project within the Dhilba Guuranda–Innes National Park on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula, formerly named the Great Southern Ark (2019), renamed Marna Banggara in June 2020 in honour of the Narungga people, who are the traditional owners of the region. As part of this project, the woylie's reintroduction is being supported by large-scale fencing and the baiting of feral cats and foxes. In August 2021, 40 woylies were translocated from Wedge Island to Dhilba Guuranda–Innes National Park. Surveillance trapping in 2022 confirmed population survival and breeding. In July 2022, 36 woylies were translocated from WA for the first time, with the permission of the Noongar traditional custodians, to boost genetic diversity. The species has been listed as near threatened by the IUCN since 2025.

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Sources cited

  • Australian Wildlife Conservancy woylie fact sheet