Eastern bettong
Bettongia gaimardi (Desmarest, 1822)
The eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) is a species in the family Potoroidae, order Diprotodontia. Recorded adults weigh 1.39 kg to 1.66 kg and live up to 11.8 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Near Threatened.
Quick facts about the eastern bettong
- Weight
- 1.39 kg – 1.66 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 11.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 21.1 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 9.97 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 2.05src 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
Photos of the eastern bettong
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Where does the eastern bettong 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 eastern bettong is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the eastern bettong?
The eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi), also known as the southern or Tasmanian bettong, is a small, hopping, rat-like mammal native to grassy forests of southeastern Australia and Tasmania. A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it is active at night and feeds on fungi and plant roots. Like most marsupials, it carries its young in a pouch. The eastern bettong is under pressure by introduced predators and habitat loss. The subspecies on mainland Australia (B. g. gaimardi) is extinct, but populations of the Tasmanian subspecies (B. g. cuniculus) have been reintroduced there.
The animal is called balbo by the Ngunnawal, an Aboriginal people who used to keep them as pets.
From the Wikipedia article “Eastern bettong” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eastern_bettong&oldid=1335346791), 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 eastern bettong endangered?
The eastern bettong is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List: it is close to qualifying as threatened.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Near Threatened species.
How is the eastern bettong classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderDiprotodontia
- familyPotoroidae
- genusBettongia
- SpeciesBettongia gaimardi (Desmarest, 1822)
Synonyms Kangurus gaimardi
Other names and names in other languages (30)
- Gaimard’s bettongEnglish
- Gaimard’s bettongEnglish
- Southern bettongEnglish
- Southern bettongEnglish
- Tasmanian bettongEnglish
- Tasmanian bettongEnglish
- Tasmanian bettongEnglish
- Tasmanian rat kangarooEnglish
- Tasmanian rat kangarooEnglish
- بطونق شرقيArabic
- klokánek GaimardůvCzech
- Tasmanien-BürstenkänguruGerman
- Östliches BürstenrattenkänguruGerman
- Tasmanien-BürstenrattenkänguruGerman
- Tasmanisches BürstenkänguruGerman
- Betong de TasmaniaSpanish
- Canguro-rata de TasmaniaSpanish
- tasmaniankaivajakenguruFinnish
- Kangourou-rat de GaimardFrench
- Kangourou-rat de TasmanieFrench
- Bettongia orientaleItalian
- Bettongia della TasmaniaItalian
- Bettongia meridionaleItalian
- アカフサオネズミカンガルーJapanese
- TasmanbettongNorwegian Bokmål
- Tasmaanse BorstelstaartkangoeroeratDutch
- kanguroszczurnik tasmańskiPolish
- Betong-da-TâsmaniaPortuguese
- Короткомордый кенгуруRussian
- ganyimungxdk
Relatives of the eastern bettong
Other species in the same genus Bettongia.
Woylie
Bettongia penicillata
Northern bettong
Bettongia tropica
Boodie
Bettongia lesueur
Nullarbor dwarf bettong
Bettongia pusilla
Desert bettong
Bettongia anhydra
Little bettong
Bettongia haoucharae
CompareEastern bettong vs WoylieEastern bettong vs Northern bettongEastern bettong vs BoodieEastern bettong vs Nullarbor dwarf bettong
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the eastern bettong?
An adult eastern bettong weighs 1.39 kg – 1.66 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the eastern bettong live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the eastern bettong for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the eastern bettong endangered?
The eastern bettong is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is close to qualifying as threatened.
How long does the eastern bettong live?
The eastern bettong has a recorded lifespan of 11.8 years.
How long is the eastern bettong pregnant?
The recorded gestation period is 21.1 days.
What kind of animal is the eastern bettong?
The eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi) 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.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/eastern-bettong
“Eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/eastern-bettong.
@misc{eastern_bettong_2026,
title = {Eastern bettong (Bettongia gaimardi)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/eastern-bettong},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}