A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it lives in burrows and is active at night when it forages for fungi, roots, and other plant matter.
Before European settlement, it was the most common macropod in Australia (a group that includes kangaroos, wallabies, and other Australian mammals).
It was declared a pest in the 1900s and was wiped out by the 1960s; however, the loss of the boodie and other ground-foraging animals has degraded soil quality.
Populations persisted on three west coast islands (Bernier, Dorre, and Barrow), and the boodie has been reintroduced to the mainland since the 2000s.
[11] The boodie is a small, rat-like marsupial with short, rounded ears and a lightly haired, thick tail.
Young bettongs have two molars which are replaced by one adult premolar; this event is a good indication of maturity.
The postcranial skeleton of all potoroids has seven cervical, 13 thoracic, six lumbar, two sacral, and 22 caudal vertebrae, with 13 pairs of ribs.
[13] Females mate the day after giving birth, and the fertilized egg arrests development until the young is weaned.
[4] The boodie once lived in a range of dry subtropical and tropical habitats, from open eucalyptus and acacia woodlands to arid spinifex grasslands.
In its current range on the islands, it seems to prefer open Triodia (spinifex) and dune habitats, but will burrow anywhere except places with rocky substrate.
[13] The burrowing bettong eats a variety of foods, such as seeds, fruits, flowers, tubers, roots, succulent leaves, grasses, fungi, termites, and marine refuse.
[13] At the Arid Recovery Reserve near Roxby Downs in South Australia, the boodie is preyed upon by the western quoll.
This mixing also increased water absorption into the soil and reduced the combustible material under trees, decreasing the likelihood of fire.
The loss of small, ground-foraging animals after European settlement contributed to widespread soil deterioration.
[15] Also, B. lesueur may have helped to thin woody weeds on rangeland by browsing shrubs growing after fires.
[16] The contraction of the distribution range in Southwest Australia during English settlement has been difficult to determine, Guy C. Shortridge searched unsuccessfully for the species south of Perth in 1909, and Charles M. Hoy obtained a skull that might have been collected at the sub-fossil site at the Margaret River Caves systems located within the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.
The fast gait (or bipedal hop) is characteristic of the macropodiforms and uses only the hind limbs, with the forelimbs held close to the body and tail acting as a counterbalance.
As pastoral leases spread over the grasslands, livestock grazing reduced vegetation cover, shrinking their habitat.
[6] Once present in all mainland states except Victoria, the burrowing bettong survived as three remnant populations on small offshore islands.
The species was released at a large fenced sanctuary at Newhaven in the Northern Territory in June 2022,[21] and at Mallee Cliffs National Park in September 2023.
[22] It is pegged for reintroduction to Dirk Hartog Island following the removal of feral cats and domestic livestock,[23] as well as to a fenced landscape at Sturt National Park, in New South Wales.