Endangered Northern Bettongs Aren’t Picky Truffle Eaters

A small endangered marsupial with a taste for truffles may be a linchpin in one kind of Australian forest — and the evidence is in the animal’s poop. Northern bettongs feast on truffles, the meaty, spore-producing parts of certain fungi. Plenty of animals eat a selection of these subterranean orbs from time to time. But analyses of the scat from northern bettongs (Bettongia tropica) reveal that the marsupials eat truffles from a wider diversity of fungi species than other critters, including some that no other animals appear to favor, researchers report November 22 in Molecular Ecology.