For some strange reason I had this strong desire to take a trip to Tasmania today. You know that little island by Australia that has one of my favourite cartoon characters, the Tasmanian Devil. Well, we aren’t going back to look at the Devil. Instead, I figured we would learn about something a little smaller, the Tasmanian Bettong, which is also known as the Eastern Bettong and the Southern Bettong. So what in the world is a Bettong? Great question so let’s get started and find out, shall we?
The Tasmanian Bettong is basically a small kangaroo with an average weight of 2 kg (4.4 lbs). These little marsupials use to be found throughout Australia, however, the introduction of the Red Fox wiped out the population on the mainland. Now the Tasmanian Bettong is restricted to the eastern side of Tasmania. In retrospect, perhaps it wasn’t a great idea to introduce these different animals to Australia since they seem to have done more harm than good. Okay, getting back to the appearance of our little kangaroo friend….. They typically have a brown-grey colour with a nice white under-belly and their tails are usually just as long as the rest of their body.
This long prehensile tail actually plays a major role in the life of the Tasmanian Bettong. They are able to curl their tail around a bundle of nesting material, which allows them to easily bring this material back home to make their nest. This nest is also important since the Bettong will spend their daylight hours hiding out in their camouflaged nest made of grass. Once night falls though, these tiny kangaroos begin to venture out in search of food. The Tasmanian Bettong eats a variety of things such as seeds, bulbs, insects, roots but their favourite meal has to be the underground fungi growing around the roots of the Eucalyptus trees.
Tasmanian Bettong Fast Fact – The Tasmanian Bettong is a great colonizer of forests destroyed by fire. Generally it would be tough to survive in such a harsh environment, however, this Bettong has no problems. Why? Well, they are able to easily transport their home from an unburnt area as a result of their cool, prehensile tail, and their favourite food is found underground, protected from the fire.
Well, that does it for the first Wild Fact of the week. I hope you enjoyed our trip to Tasmania and I will see you back here tomorrow for a new animal fact.
