Gilbert's Potoroo

Open encyclopedia reference

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).

Wikipedia contributors, Gilbert's potoroo; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T06:02:39.509206+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Potorous gilbertii (Gould, 1841)

Name authority

(Gould, 1841)

Common name

Gilbert's Potoroo

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Diprotodontia

Family

Potoroidae

Genus

Potorous

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassMetatheria Huxley, 1880
11. orderDiprotodontia Owen, 1866
12. suborderMacropodiformes Ameghino, 1889
13. familyPotoroidae Gray, 1821
14. tribePotoroini Gray, 1821
15. genusPotorous Desmarest, 1804
16. speciesPotorous gilbertii (Gould, 1841)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Potorous. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 8 records assigned to Potoroidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=709419 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4M6YR. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.