Gilbert's potoroo
Potorous gilbertii (Gould, 1841)
CRCritically Endangeredmarsupials
The gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii) is a species in the family Potoroidae, order Diprotodontia. Recorded adults weigh 1.09 kg to 1.57 kg and live up to 12 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Critically Endangered.
Quick facts about the gilbert's potoroo
- Weight
- 1.09 kg – 1.57 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 12 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 15.1 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 33.6 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 12.6 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 2src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Critically Endangered (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Where does the gilbert's potoroo 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 gilbert's potoroo is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the gilbert's potoroo?
Gilbert's potoroo or ngilkat (Potorous gilbertii) is Australia's most endangered marsupial, the rarest marsupial in the world, and one of the world's rarest critically endangered mammals, found in south-western Western Australia. It is a small nocturnal macropod that lives in small groups.
It was thought to be extinct for much of the 20th century, having not been spotted for around a century, until its rediscovery in 1994. The only naturally located population is found in Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve in Western Australia, where they co-exist with quokkas (Setonix brachyurus), but in 2015, a bushfire destroyed 90% of their habitat. Small populations are being established at Bald Island, off Albany, and more recently on Middle Island, off Esperance, all on the southern coast of Western Australia. Numbers have increased in recent years, and as of December 2018, the entire population was estimated to comprise at least 100 individuals, with 10 on Middle Island, 70 on Bald Island, 20 at Waychinicup National Park, and two at Two Peoples Bay (also known as the Mt Gardner population).
From the Wikipedia article “Gilbert's potoroo” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gilbert%27s_potoroo&oldid=1378820606), 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 gilbert's potoroo endangered?
The gilbert's potoroo is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List: it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
- 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 Critically Endangered species. What the categories mean.
How is the gilbert's potoroo classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderDiprotodontia
- familyPotoroidae
- genusPotorous
- SpeciesPotorous gilbertii (Gould, 1841)
Synonyms Hypsiprymnus gilbertii, Potorous tridactylus gilbertii
Other names and names in other languages (12)
- Gilbert s potorooEnglish
- Gilbert’s potorooEnglish
- Gilbert’s potorooEnglish
- بوطور غيلبرتArabic
- klokánek GilbertůvCzech
- Gilbert-KaninchenkänguruGerman
- Potoro de Australia SuroccidentalSpanish
- ギルバートネズミカンガルーJapanese
- GilbertpotoroNorwegian Bokmål
- Gilberts PotoroeDutch
- kanguroszczur reliktowyPolish
- potoro-de-GilbertPortuguese
Relatives of the gilbert's potoroo
Other species in the same genus Potorous.
Long-footed potoroo
Potorous longipes
Broad-faced potoroo
Potorous platyops
Long-nosed potoroo
Potorous tridactylus
CompareGilbert's potoroo vs Long-footed potorooGilbert's potoroo vs Broad-faced potorooGilbert's potoroo vs Long-nosed potorooGilbert's potoroo vs Hypsiprymnus formosus
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the gilbert's potoroo?
An adult gilbert's potoroo weighs 1.09 kg – 1.57 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the gilbert's potoroo live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the gilbert's potoroo for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the gilbert's potoroo endangered?
The gilbert's potoroo is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, meaning it faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
How long does the gilbert's potoroo live?
The gilbert's potoroo has a recorded lifespan of 12 years.
How long is the gilbert's potoroo pregnant?
The recorded gestation period is 33.6 days.
What kind of animal is the gilbert's potoroo?
The gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii) 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). Gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/gilberts-potoroo
“Gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/gilberts-potoroo.
@misc{gilberts_potoroo_2026,
title = {Gilbert's potoroo (Potorous gilbertii)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/gilberts-potoroo},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}