CreatureData

Boodie

Bettongia lesueur (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)

NTNear Threatenedmarsupials

The boodie (Bettongia lesueur) is a species in the family Potoroidae, order Diprotodontia. Recorded adults weigh 1.45 kg to 1.5 kg and live up to 9.95 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Near Threatened.

Boodie (Bettongia lesueur)
Photo: Mark Marathon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the boodie

Weight
1.45 kg – 1.5 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
9.95 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Herbivoresrc for Diet
Longest recorded lifespan
10 years
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Gestation
21.3 dayssrc for Gestation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
8.23 monthssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
3src for Litters or clutches a year
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Where does the boodie live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The boodie is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the boodie?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The boodie (Bettongia lesueur), also known as the burrowing bettong or Lesueur's rat-kangaroo, is a small, furry, rat-like mammal native to Australia. Once common throughout the continent, it is now restricted to a few coastal islands. 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. It is about the size of a rabbit and, like most marsupials, carries its young in a pouch.

Before European settlement, it was the most common macropod in Australia (a group that includes kangaroos, wallabies, and other Australian mammals). Competition and predation by introduced rabbits, cats, and foxes, as well as habitat loss, pressured the population. 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.

From the Wikipedia article “Boodie” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boodie&oldid=1372440318), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the boodie endangered?

The boodie is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Near Threatened species.

How is the boodie classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderDiprotodontia
  5. familyPotoroidae
  6. genusBettongia
  7. SpeciesBettongia lesueur (Quoy & Gaimard, 1824)

Synonyms Hypsiprymnus lesueur

Other names and names in other languages (24)
  • Burrowing bettongEnglish
  • Burrowing bettongEnglish
  • Burrowing bettongEnglish
  • Burrowing rat-kangarooEnglish
  • Burrowing rat-kangarooEnglish
  • Lesueur's rat kangarooEnglish
  • Lesueur's rat kangarooEnglish
  • Lesueur’s bettongEnglish
  • بطونق الجحورArabic
  • klokánek zemníCzech
  • Lesueur-RattenkänguruGerman
  • Lesueur-BürstenkänguruGerman
  • Westliches BürstenkänguruGerman
  • Canguro-rata de LesueurSpanish
  • Betong de Australia NoroccidentalSpanish
  • kaivajakenguruFinnish
  • Bettongie de LesueurFrench
  • Kangourou-rat de LesueurFrench
  • シロオビネズミカンガルーJapanese
  • GravebettongNorwegian Bokmål
  • LeseurborstelstaartkangoeroeratDutch
  • kanguroszczurnik ryjącyPolish
  • betong-escavadorPortuguese
  • Крысиный кенгуру ЛезюраRussian

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the boodie

Other species in the same genus Bettongia.

NT, Near Threatened
Woylie (Bettongia penicillata)

Woylie

Bettongia penicillata

Potoroidae

CompareBoodie vs WoylieBoodie vs Eastern bettongBoodie vs Northern bettongBoodie vs Nullarbor dwarf bettong

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the boodie?

An adult boodie weighs 1.45 kg – 1.5 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the boodie live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the boodie for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the boodie endangered?

The boodie is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is close to qualifying as threatened.

How long does the boodie live?

The boodie has a recorded lifespan of 9.95 years.

How long is the boodie pregnant?

The recorded gestation period is 21.3 days.

What kind of animal is the boodie?

The boodie (Bettongia lesueur) belongs to the family Potoroidae in the order Diprotodontia.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Boodie (Bettongia lesueur). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/boodie

MLA

“Boodie (Bettongia lesueur).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/boodie.

BibTeX
@misc{boodie_2026,
  title = {Boodie (Bettongia lesueur)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/boodie},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}