New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) may provide an important boost for efforts to save the world's rarest marsupial.
The Gilbert's potoroo, a critically endangered species found only in Western Australia, has fewer than 150 animals left in the wild. Scientists from ECU and the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) are working together to better understand what the small marsupials eat so conservation teams can identify suitable new habitats and help secure the species' future.
"We are looking to recover the species through translocations, which is moving organisms from one location to another to create an insurance population in case anything was to happen in their existing populations," School of Science PhD student Rebecca Quah explains.
"In doing that, one of the challenges was trying to determine what they are eating and where those resources can be found. Mycophagus -- or fungi-eating mammal diets are quite hard to study because a lot of fungi remain undescribed."
Using DNA From Scat To Study Diets
