Endangered marsupial of the day

Gilbert's Potoroo is a small marsupial teetering on the brink of extinction. Found only in dense scrub on a rugged, windswept headland thrusting out into the Southern Ocean, its numbers are so low that a chance event like a bushfire or a drought could push the species into extinction.

First discovered in 1840 by naturalist John Gilbert and recorded again only a few times over the next 40 years, this small rat-kangaroo was thought to be extinct since the late 1870s until rediscovered in 1994 at Two Peoples Bay near Albany, on the South Coast of Western Australia.

It is estimated there are only 30 to 40 animals in the only known wild population, with an additional 40 to 50 animals in two translocated conservation colonies.This limited population means that critically endangered Gilbert's Potoroo is Australia's rarest mammal.

From the web site of the Gilbert's Potoroo Action Group. Not only is it rare, but the charmingly-named Gilbert's Potoroo is almost as fussy about its food as that icon of endangered cuteness, the Giant Panda. Almost as fussy, but rather more sophisticated - where the panda munches away on a monotonous diet of endless bamboo, Gilbert's Potoroo dines almost exclusively on truffles. Mind you, this indulgent diet is probably a bit more Heston Blumenthal than Michel Roux Jr. According to Dr Andrew Claridge, Australia has between 500 and 1000 bush truffles, some with fragrant odours like garlic, vanilla or cinnamon. Others exude a pungent whiff of "rotting fish or diesel fumes."

Although it's monumentally unlucky to be almost extinct, Gilbert's Potoroo at least has the good fortune to be cute enough to warrant its own action group. Many aesthetically challenged endangered species don't even get that, although, I was cheered to discover that somebody out there cared enough to write a blog about Endangered Ugly Things. Still, Gilbert's Potoroo may be a lot more than just a pretty face. Dr Claridge, talking to The Canberra Times, had this to say about potoroos and their relatives, the bandicoots:

They're the engineers, architects and hydrologists of the bush. They turn over the top soil and improve its ability to hold water. That's no small contribution we've estimated they turn over an incredible volume of soil, probably around six tonnes in a year. They're also carbon recyclers, turning over organic matter to be incorporated into the soil.

The root systems of some eucalypts depend on the presence of truffles, and the potoroos spread the spores of these underground fruiting fungi in their droppings. "The trees won't grow without these fungi so you can add the role of natural resource managers as well. The fungi transfer water and nutrients to the host trees, which basically acts to drought-proof them. The fungi enable the trees to retain precious water from the soil by ensheathing the roots and forming a protective barrier to prevent desiccation.

Potoroos and bandicoots have an ecological and economic role to play in preserving Australia's forests. Lose these animals, and you lose the prosperity and health of our forest ecosystems.