CreatureData

Woylie

Bettongia penicillata Gray, 1837

NTNear Threatenedmarsupials

The woylie (Bettongia penicillata) is a species in the family Potoroidae, order Diprotodontia. Recorded adults weigh 1.1 kg to 1.3 kg and live up to 18.8 years. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Near Threatened.

Woylie (Bettongia penicillata)
Photo: arthur_chapman · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the woylie

Weight
1.1 kg – 1.3 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
18.8 yearssrc for Lifespan
Diet
Herbivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Gestation
19.2 dayssrc for Gestation
Young per litter or clutch
1src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
6.22 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

Photos of the woylie

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.

Where does the woylie 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 woylie 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 woylie?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The woylie or brush-tailed bettong (Bettongia ogilbyi) is a small, near-threatened mammal native to forests and shrubland of Australia. A member of the rat-kangaroo family (Potoroidae), it moves by hopping and is active at night, digging for fungi to eat. It is also a marsupial and carries its young in a pouch. Once widespread across southern Australia, the woylie mostly died out from habitat loss and introduced predators such as foxes and feral cats. It is currently restricted to two small areas in Western Australia. There are four subspecies: both B. o. ogilbyi, and B. o. sylvatica, are extant and occur in small populations in the southwest, while B. o. odontoploica, and B. o. francisca are extinct.

From the Wikipedia article “Woylie” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Woylie&oldid=1382803464), 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 woylie endangered?

The woylie 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 woylie classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderDiprotodontia
  5. familyPotoroidae
  6. genusBettongia
  7. SpeciesBettongia penicillata Gray, 1837
Other names and names in other languages (12)
  • Brush-tailed bettongEnglish
  • Brush-tailed bettongEnglish
  • Brush-tailed bettongEnglish
  • Brush-tailed rat-kangarooEnglish
  • Brush-tailed rat-kangarooEnglish
  • BürstenrattenkänguruGerman
  • Bürstenschwanz-RattenkänguruGerman
  • Südliches BürstenkänguruGerman
  • Canguro-rata ColipeludoSpanish
  • Bettongie à queue touffueFrench
  • Kangourou-rat à queue touffueFrench
  • KanguroszczurPolish

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the woylie

Other species in the same genus Bettongia.

NT, Near Threatened
Boodie (Bettongia lesueur)

Boodie

Bettongia lesueur

Potoroidae

CompareWoylie vs Eastern bettongWoylie vs Northern bettongWoylie vs BoodieWoylie vs Nullarbor dwarf bettong

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the woylie?

An adult woylie weighs 1.1 kg – 1.3 kg, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the woylie live?

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

Is the woylie endangered?

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

How long does the woylie live?

The woylie has a recorded lifespan of 18.8 years.

How long is the woylie pregnant?

The recorded gestation period is 19.2 days.

What kind of animal is the woylie?

The woylie (Bettongia penicillata) 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). Woylie (Bettongia penicillata). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/woylie

MLA

“Woylie (Bettongia penicillata).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/woylie.

BibTeX
@misc{woylie_2026,
  title = {Woylie (Bettongia penicillata)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/woylie},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}