The lesser hairy-footed dunnart (''Sminthopsis youngsoni'') is a small carnivorous Australian

marsupial Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...

of the family

Dasyuridae The Dasyuridae are a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, including 71 extant species divided into 17 genera. Many are small and mouse-like or shrew-like, giving some of them the name marsupial mice or marsupial shrews, but th ...

. It is a widespread and fairly common species, being found in many desert areas of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

and

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. Its foraging strategies have been studied by Haythornthwaite and Dickman. The lesser hairy-footed dunnart is distinguished from the very similar

hairy-footed dunnart The hairy-footed dunnart (''Sminthopsis hirtipes'') is a dunnart that has silver hairs on the soles of it hind feet accompanied by long hair on the side of its sole. It is an Australian marsupial similar to the Ooldea dunnart, with its upper bod ...

by its smaller size and less hairy soles.

Population dynamics

During dry periods, hairy-footed dunnart populations remain stable, instead of experiencing a boom-bust cycle like sandy inland mice.

References

Dasyuromorphs Mammals of Western Australia Mammals of South Australia Mammals of the Northern Territory Marsupials of Australia Mammals described in 1982 {{WesternAustralia-stub