Gilbert's Potoroo

Gilbert's potoroo, known in the Nyungar language as ngilkat and scientifically as Potorous gilbertii, is a small nocturnal marsupial of south-western Western Australia and is regarded as Australia's most endangered marsupial. It was presumed extinct for roughly a century until a researcher trapping wallabies caught one at Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve in 1994. The animal is rufous brown above and light grey beneath, with long hind feet, curved digging claws and a thin downward-curving snout, and adults weigh a little under or around a kilogram. It feeds mainly on underground truffle-like fungi and helps spread their spores. The only naturally located population lives on the Mount Gardner headland, where a 2015 bushfire destroyed most of its habitat, so conservation relies on translocated groups on Bald Island, Middle Island and at Waychinicup, bringing the total to around one hundred animals.