Long-nosed potoroo
Common name: long-nosed potoroo
Scientific name: Potorous tridactylus
Family: Potoroidae
Conservation status: This species is listed as Vulnerable in Queensland (Nature Conservation Act 1992) and nationally (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999). It is ranked as a medium priority under the Department of Environment and Resource Management Back on Track species prioritisation framework.
Description
At a first glance the long-nosed potoroo with its pointed nose and grey-brown fur looks very much like a bandicoot - that is until it hops away with its front feet tucked into its chest, revealing its close relationship with the kangaroo family. It is only a small marsupial with a body length between 340 mm and 380 mm, and a tail length up to 235 mm.
Habitat and distribution
The long-nosed potoroo occurs across a range of vegetation types from subtropical and warm temperate rainforest through tall open forest with dense understory to dense coastal heaths. Its main requirement is thick groundcover, which it needs for protection and nesting material. It also prefers light soils that are easy to dig in for the underground roots and fungi that it eats.
It has a patchy distribution across south-eastern Australia and is only known from a small area of southern Queensland that extends into northern New South Wales. Its bones have been found in a number of cave deposits indicating it was once more widespread than it is today (Johnston 2002).
Life history and behaviour
Long-nosed potoroos are nocturnal, spending much of their time within the shelter of understory vegetation. They use long, slightly curved claws on their front feet to dig up their food. They eat underground fruiting bodies of fungi, roots, fruit, flowers, seeds and insects and their larvae. As it is rarely seen in the wild, better indicators of its presence are the runways it makes through the undergrowth and the hollow diggings it leaves behind when feeding on underground roots and fungi.
Due to their consumption of fungi they spread fungal spores in their droppings. Some of these fungi grow on the roots of native plants and assist the plant in the uptake of nutrients from the soil.
Threatening processes
The long-nosed potoroo was one of the first marsupials to be described by European settlers. Unfortunately these early encounters with human settlement have introduced a number of threats to the species survival; including:
- The clearing of much of its habitat for grazing and other land uses.
- Exposure to introduced predators such as dogs, cats and foxes.
- Changes in fire regimes on the remaining habitata, with more severe and more frequent fires creating sparse understory that provides little shelter for small mammals like the long-nosed potoroo.
What can you do to help this species
- Prevent domestic cats and dogs from roaming into areas of long-nosed potoroo habitat.
- Where fire control is necessary apply fire regimes that maintain dense understory vegetation cover such as mosaic pattern hazard burns to ensure the same areas are not burned continuously.
- Protect and maintain habitat, especially dense understory. Where possible fence areas of habitat to avoid grazing and trampling by domestic stock.
Further information
Johnson, PM 2003. Kangaroos of Queensland. A Queensland Museum Guide, Queensland Museum, Brisbane.
Jones, C and Parish, S 2006. Field guide to Australian mammals. Steve Parish Publishing
Maxwell, S, Burbidge, AA, and Morris, K (eds.) 1996. The 1996 Action Plan For Australian Marsupials and Monotremes. Wildlife Australia Endangered Species Program Project Number 500.
Menkhorst, P and Knight, F 2001. A field guide to mammals of Australia. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Victoria.
Reference
Johnston, PG 2002. Long-nosed Potoroo, in Strahan, R (ed.) 2002. The Mammals of Australia. Revised Edition. Australian Museum and Reed New Holland publishers.
Last updated 12 July 2011