Bettongs - Miniature Macropods

The macropod family has to be one of the most iconic groups of marsupials in Australia, and while Kangaroos and Wallabies are well known to everyone, their smaller cousins the Bettongs, remain largely unknown, despite the fact they were almost driven to extinction.
When Europeans first arrived in Australia, there was five species of Bettongs distributed throughout the country, but with the introduction of cats and foxes, the eastern bettong and burrowing bettong became extinct on the mainland, with the Eastern Bettong surviving only in Tasmania and the Burrowing Bettong on smaller offshore islands, the Brushtailed Bettong, once found across much of the country was reduced to a small population in Western Australia and the Northern Bettong being declared endangered. Only the Rufus Bettong remained secure. In recent times significant efforts have been made to reintroduce eastern, brushtailed and burrowing bettongs back to parts of their former range and today all five bettongs now exist on the mainland again, although several are only found in human managed, predator proof, fenced reserves.