Yet the resilient quenda is digging in. Or, more precisely, just digging. Digging and digging and digging, turning over tonnes of soil each year.

In recent times, the small, rotund ground dweller, which is sometimes mistakenly identified as a rat, has been reduced to critically low numbers in much of Australia's southeast due to fox and feral cat predation.

But what hasn't been as much a threat for the quenda is the encroachment of human settlement.

In fact, the innovative omnivore is quite partial to boring into cultivated backyard lawns in search of tasty bulbs, roots, worms and insects.

Scientists have also established that the nocturnal miner has developed a liking for what can be found in domestic compost and has even been known to snack on pet foods including bird seed.

In Perth at least, the quenda has become something of a celebrity, with some residents actually leaving nightly treats out for them.

What hasn't been widely recognised until now, though, is the extent to which the presence of the likeable bandicoot subspecies is contributing to the upkeep of the city's native parks and bushland zones.

And to its suburban gardens.

Researchers at Edith Cowan University have discovered the quenda is a major distributor of fungi which help sustain native plants, including eucalypt trees, as they struggle to cope with seasonal hardship.

Team leader Dr Anna Hopkins says she and colleagues from Murdoch and WA universities along with various conservation officials were surprised to find such a diversity of beneficial organisms scattered by quendas.

"They perform an incredibly important role as ecosystem engineers, digging, eating and spreading important fungi throughout the native bushland we have around Perth," she said.

"The wide variety of fungi we found is also great news for our gardens, as it indicates quenda are venturing into them around their native habitats to search for food.

"The travelling quendas disperse the fungi through their droppings, which make their way into the soil to colonise plant roots and can then help the plants absorb nutrients and water."

Not only this. The volumes of soil quendas dig over makes for superior aeration, while their production of small pits incorporating leaf litter and seeds also encourages native flora to thrive.

Unlike rabbit burrows, which are squared off, quenda holes have a distinctive, conical appearance that mirrors the shape of their head. The divots they excavate from the 10cm cavities are also easily identified.

Dr Hopkins urges householders where possible to provide habitat for quendas by planting dense, native vegetation.

"One of their favourite habitats is the skirts of grasstrees," she said. "They'll shelter there during the day and create little paths to move around.

"You can also help by keeping your cats inside at night."

Australian Associated Press