Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Diprotodontia > Potoroidae > Potorous > Potorous gilbertii

Potorous gilbertii (Gilbert's Potoroo)

Synonyms: Potorous tridactylus gilbertii

Wikipedia Abstract

Gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii), sometimes called the "rat-kangaroo" or "garlgyte", is Australia's most endangered marsupial and one of the world's most endangered mammals. It is a small nocturnal marsupial which lives in small groups or colonies. It has long hind feet and front feet with curved claws which it uses for digging food. Its body has large amounts of fur which helps with insulation, and its fur ranges between brown and grey; the color fading on its belly. This potoroo has a long, thin snout curving downward that it uses to smell its surroundings; this trait is common in all potoroo species. Its eyes appear to bulge out of its face and look as though they are on an angle and its ears are almost invisible, buried under thick fur. Male and female body types are very similar
View Wikipedia Record: Potorous gilbertii

Endangered Species

Status: Critically Endangered
View IUCN Record: Potorous gilbertii

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
7
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
74
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 14.76
EDGE Score: 5.53
View EDGE Record: Potorous gilbertii

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.396 lbs (1.087 kg)
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Herbivore
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  20 %
Diet - Plants [2]  80 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  1 year
Gestation [1]  34 days
Litter Size [3]  1
Litters / Year [1]  2
Maximum Longevity [1]  15 years
Nocturnal [2]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [1]  15 inches (38 cm)

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve 11725 Western Australia, Australia  

Alliance for Zero Extinction (AZE) Sites

Name  Location   Map   Climate   Land Use 
Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve Australia

Prey / Diet

Billardiera heterophylla (bluebell creeper)[4]
Castoreum tasmanicum[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Bettongia gaimardi (Eastern Bettong)1

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
3Species Profile and Threats Database, Australian Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities
4A QUANTITATIVE DIETARY STUDY OF THE ‘CRITICALLY ENDANGERED’ GILBERT’S POTOROO POTOROUS GILBERTII, V.P. NGUYEN, A.D. NEEDHAM AND J.A. FRIEND, Australian Mammalogy Volume 27 Number 1 2005, pp. 1-6
AZE sites provided by Alliance for Zero Extinction (2010). 2010 AZE Update.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0