This species is listed as Vulnerable because it has the area of occupancy (AOO) less than 2,000 km² and the extent of occurrence (EOO) less than 20,000 km² and is likely to be experiencing continuing decline in abundance due to loss of habitat quality caused by severe bushfires, and ongoing loss in population size due to invasive predators and wildfire, although intensive management (fox baiting) has a beneficial effect.

The Long-footed Potoroo is restricted to mainland south-eastern Australia, where it is currently known from three disjunct areas. There are two substantial subpopulations in Victoria (Vic), one in East Gippsland (north-east of Orbost) that includes parts of coastal east Victoria, and the other on the Great Dividing Range around the Barry Ranges and the headwaters of the Wonnangatta, Buffalo, Buckland and Ovens Rivers (this is known as the Barry Mountains subpopulation). A third and much smaller subpopulation is in far south-eastern New South Wales (NSW) approximately 20 km north of the Vic border in an area contained within the South East Forests National Park (Nunan et al. 2000). A species distribution model suggested that this subpopulation is in an area of lower habitat suitability than the main Victorian subpopulations (Wauchope-Drumm et al. 2020). Field surveys in 2008/2009 and 2017 failed to record the species (Wauchope-Drumm et al. 2020) but a single animal was detected on camera in 2023 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-11/first-long-footed-potoroo-sighting-nsw-bondi-state-forest/102955008). Evidently, while the northern subpopulation remains extant, numbers of animals are low. 

In the near-coastal East Gippsland subpopulation the Long-footed Potoroo has been recorded from more than 60 separate sites (‘sites include clusters of records’: Department of Sustainability and Environment 2009) over an area of c. 1,600 km². The Barry Mountains subpopulation on the Great Dividing Range includes 74 sites at which the species has been detected, over an area of more than 3,000 km² (Alan Robley pers. comm. 2024). The third subpopulation in far south-eastern New South Wales occurs within an area of 200 km². Within these three broad locations (totalling 4,800 km²), Long-footed Potoroos are likely to occur in ‘only a relatively small proportion of the area’ (Department of Sustainability and Environment 2009).

Reflecting its recent discovery (the species was described in 1980, and the Barry Mountains subpopulation was not discovered until 1995), its difficulty of detection, and continuing targeted searching, the known range of the Long-footed Potoroo has increased since 2000. Records from road-kills and camera trapping, including at Cape Conran and west of the Snowy River, increased the known range of the East Gippsland subpopulation (Elsner et al. 2012, Lumsden et al. 2013, Woinarski et al. 2014). Surveying in the Goolengook Forest Management Block extended the southern and eastern limits of the subpopulation (Elsner et al. 2012). This increase in range reflects increased knowledge rather than range expansion. The extent to which the actual range may have changed in recent decades is unknown.

Other evidence indicates historical decline in range. A fossil skull was found at Yarrangobilly Caves, south-west of Canberra (Seebeck 1992), and a museum specimen was collected in 1900 from near Rosedale, west of the current known range (Seebeck and Johnston 1980), indicating that the species was more widespread in the past. Some clearing and intensive forestry activities in and around parts of its known range suggest that its actual range has probably declined at least slightly since European colonisation.

There has been no robust estimate of the population size of this species, nor that of any of its subpopulations. Currently, population estimation is constrained by the difficulty of detecting the species. It is generally accepted to be ‘rare’ (McKnight 2008). In the past, it was thought that total population size ‘seems unlikely to … exceed a few thousand individuals, and may be no more than a few hundred’ (Nunan et al. 2000, McKnight 2008). However, recent surveys have shown that the species is more widely distributed than was previously thought, and a plausible estimate of numbers is now considered to be at least 10,000 and possibly as high as 50,000 (Menkhorst and Lumsden 2018).

The population is likely to have declined in the recent past due to a range of threats, of which the most significant are effects of changed fire regimes and predation by the Red Fox Vulpes vulpes, and their interaction. Analysis of trends at a site at Bellbird Creek, part of the East Gippsland subpopulation, which was monitored using live-trapping, suggested a decline in abundance of 2.5% per year, equivalent to 30-40% decline over three generations, possibly as high as 6.5% per year (Lumsden et al. 2013; TSSC 2022). An expert elicitation process estimated range-wide population decline in the past three generations of 21-29% (Legge et al. 2022).

On the other hand, systematic and ongoing control of foxes by poison baiting throughout the two Victorian subpopulations has evidently been effective in reducing the impact of predation by foxes. Monitoring has shown that site-occupancy by Long-nosed Potoroos is higher in areas that have been baited against foxes. In the Barry Mountains subpopulation, monitoring using systematic camera trapping showed subpopulation-wide site-occupancy increased between 2007 and 2022, mainly due to recovery from previous fires but also because of fox-baiting (Robley et al. 2023). Over the past four years, detections at camera sites in this subpopulation increased from 35 of 120 sites (29.17%) in 2020, to 53 of 148 sites (36.49%) in 2021, 52 of 139 sites (37.4%) in 2022, 64 of 150 sites (42.67%) in 2023, and 74 of 147 sites (50.3%) in 2024 (Alan Robley pers. comm.).

The species was affected by the destructive wildfires that burnt through much of the forested area of south-east Australia in the 2019-20 fire season. These fires affected 81% of the known range of the Long-footed Potoroo, and 38% of the range was subject to severe fire. An expert-elicitation and spatial analysis of the effects of these fires indicated that the range-wide effect of the fires would be to reduce the population by 46% immediately post-fire, and by 37% of pre-fire size three generations post-fire, assuming continuation of current management (Legge et al. 2022). Surveys of the Barry Mountains subpopulation shows that site-occupancy is higher in long-unburnt than in burnt habitat and is reduced for up to 50 years post-fire (Robley et al. 2023).

In the East Gippsland subpopulation, the effects of the 2019-20 fires were evaluated by comparing site-occupancy measured in camera-trap surveys in 2016-17 and 2019 (pre-fire) and in 2020 (6 months post-fire). This showed that site-occupancy was mostly maintained before and after the fire, except at sites with relatively high density of foxes where Long-footed Potoroos were absent, and at sites burnt at high intensity, where it fell slightly (Robley et al. 2022). These results suggest that the impacts of the 2019-20 fires were smaller than expected. Some caution is warranted in interpreting these results, because the relationship of site-occupancy to abundance is unclear, and it is possible that severe fire reduced abundance significantly without causing local extirpation. Also, it is possible that the animals were favoured in the first months after fire because of increased availability of underground fungi, but subsequent declines have not yet been recorded. Nonetheless, it seems clear that Long-footed Potoroo population size is more resilient to the impacts of severe fire than was thought, provided that predator control is effective.

The Long-footed Potoroo is a mostly nocturnal, terrestrial marsupial. With a head-and-body length of up to 400 mm, tail length up to 320 mm, and body weight up to 2.3 kg in males and 1.7 kg in females, it is one of the largest members of the rat-kangaroo family Potoroidae.

It occurs in a range of forest types, including warm temperate rainforests, wet eucalypt forests and shrubby dry forests, particularly where there is a dense understorey, a mixed-species overstorey and moist friable soils (Seebeck et al. 1989, Nunan et al. 2000). The quality of habitat increases with rainfall (Wauchope-Drumm et al. 2020). Moist gullies dominated by dense mesic vegetation are especially important, because they provide preferred habitat during the drier summer months. It has been recorded from elevations of 100 to 1,400 m a.s.l. (Nunan et al. 2000; Department of Sustainability and Environment 2009).

Underground-fruiting fungi comprise the bulk of the diet. Some invertebrates and plant material also eaten (Green et al. 1999). Like other species of Potoroidae that feed on underground fungi, the Long-footed Potoroo provides ecosystem services consisting of improving soil condition by digging through and turning over soil, and dispersing the spores of the ectomycorrhizal fungi on which it feeds, thereby benefitting plants by promoting mycorrhizal symbiosis. The abundance and diversity of fungi is affected by season and rainfall, fire regimes, logging and other disturbances (Claridge et al. 2000).

Long-footed Potoroos are probably territorial, and they appear to be monogamous based on patterns of overlap of home ranges (Scotts and Seebeck 1989). Breeding may occur throughout the year, although births (of a single young) may peak in late winter and early spring (Green and Mitchell 1997). Home range size varies from 14-60 hectares and is larger in males than females (Green et al. 1998).

The most significant threats to the species are predation by the invasive red fox Vulpes vulpes and feral cat Felis catus, fire regimes that threaten biodiversity, and changes to temperature and rainfall patterns under climate change. These threats interact strongly with one another to amplify their separate impacts on Long-footed Potoroos.

The Long-footed potoroo is highly susceptible to predation by the Red Fox (Radford et al. 2018). The Red Fox occurs throughout its range and remains of Long-footed Potoroos have regularly been found in fox scats (albeit at low frequencies, reflecting the general rarity of the species). Long-footed potoroos are more likely to be present in areas where densities of the Red Fox are lower; surveys of the East Gippsland subpopulation showed that they were absent in sites where predicted fox abundance was greater than 0.5/km² (Robley et al. 2022). Programs that attempt to reduce population of foxes by coordinated large-scale baiting using the poison 1080 are underway in the range of the Long-footed Potoroo, one that includes the East Gippsland subpopulation (the Southern Ark project) and another that includes the Barry Mountains subpopulation (Barry Mountains Ark). In the Barry Mountain project, occurrence of foxes was lower at sites subject to recent fox baiting, and the occupancy of Long-footed Potoroos was positively related to the number of years over which a site had been regularly baited (Robley et al. 2023). Feral cats may also threaten the Long-footed Potoroo, but evidence on this is less certain and foxes generally appear to be the major predator. It is possible that reduction of Red Foxes could allow feral cats to increase in abundance and have greater impact on Long-footed Potoroos (Rees et al. 2023). There is some evidence for increased occupancy of cats following reduction of foxes in the Barry Mountain subpopulation, but the effect appears to be small (Robley et al. 2023).

Fire affects Long-footed Potoroos by causing mortality as a direct result of fire, and by reducing habitat quality through destruction of the dense and moist understorey vegetation that the species prefers. Fires that burn into (normally wet) gullies are likely to be especially damaging. In the Barry Mountain subpopulation, the factor that most strongly predicts occupancy of Long-footed Potoroos is time since fire: the animals were 4-12 times more likely to occupy long-unburnt than recently burnt sites (Robley et al. 2023). Monitoring of the East Gippsland subpopulation following the 2019-20 bushfires found that site-occupancy of Long-nosed Potoroos declined somewhat in areas that were severely burnt, though the animals persisted elsewhere, and the Long-footed Potoroo was apparently more resilient to severe fire than other species (Robley et al. 2022). Severe fire is also harmful because it may result in increased predation. This is because, first, the removal of vegetation cover increases the exposure of Long-footed Potoroos to predators, and second, because Red Foxes and Feral Cats increase their activity in recently burnt areas. Foxes and (potentially) Feral Cats can therefore have high impact on Long-footed Potoroos in the aftermath of fire (Hradsky et al. 2017, Hradsky 2020).

Increased temperatures and frequency of severe drought is likely to threaten the Long-footed Potoroo in the future by reducing quality of habitat, especially through the drying-out of the damp gullies and dense understory that are key contributors to habitat quality for the species. Potentially these changes could also disrupt availability of food by their effects on seasonal fruiting of the hypogeous fungi that form the most important part of the diet of the species. These effects are difficult to predict. Climate change is also likely to increase the frequency and severity of bushfire.

Several other factors, including competition and habitat damage by feral pigs and predation by dingoes may be locally significant but are unlikely to be of widespread importance. Habitat disturbance and loss due to timber harvesting has probably been a significant threat in the past, but logging of native forest ceased in Victoria in 2024, and no logging is permitted in the range of the NSW subpopulation.

A Recovery Plan for this species was developed in 2000 (Nunan et al. 2000) but is no longer current. An Action Statement, consistent with the Recovery Plan, was implemented in Victoria (Department of Sustainability and Environment 2009), and a Research Plan (Broome et al. 1997) and Recovery Plan (NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service 2002) were implemented in New South Wales. The Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water has produced a Conservation Advice for the species (updated in 2022) that includes priority actions for management and research. Most of the actions in these Plans have been implemented. Surveys have substantially extended the known range. Broad-scale fox management, under the Southern Ark and the Barry Mountains Ark programs, appears to have been instrumental in stabilizing if not increasing abundance in some areas (Robley et al. 2022, Robley et al. 2023, Robley pers. comm., A. Murray pers. comm. in Woinarski et al. 2014). The conservation status of the species is strongly dependent on the continuation of these fox control programs.

Since its relatively recent discovery, the Long-footed Potoroo has been subject to specific protection measures, with exclusion of forestry activities (prior to complete cessation of native forest logging in the state of Victoria) and intensive baiting of introduced predators (targeting foxes) around known localities in Victoria. In New South Wales, much of the known range of the species now occurs within the boundaries of conservation reserves not subject to timber harvesting. Ongoing 1080 baiting of introduced predators is also a high priority management action in NSW.

A captive population was maintained for several years at Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria but was not viable in the long term due to lack of replenishment over time and poor breeding success (Department of Sustainability and Environment 2009).