The small marsupial is also fulfilling a vital role in the Midlands ecosystem, aerating soil and spreading seeds.

And its movements could have far greater consequences still, helping to guide a new study into the impact of historic and ongoing land clearing - and where new native woodlands would be of the greatest benefit.

To determine this, researchers from the University of Tasmania studied the genome of the Midlands' known bettong populations to determine how related they are to each other and what barriers exist to them finding a mate from a different population.

UTAS biologist Kristin Proft said the findings demonstrated how isolated some populations had become over a long period.

"You can definitely see that there's a genetic signature of that loss of habitat since European colonisation," she said.

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"Populations which are separated by areas of more clearing, they are less related to each other. Populations that still have better connections of habitat between them have more gene flow.

"We found this to be quite a striking suggestion - the clearing that has occurred over the last 200 years is having an effect on bettong gene flow.

"This is important information because they are extinct on the mainland. It's a key species that we need to hang on to."

GPS collars also showed that bettongs would rarely travel more than 500 metres away from a habitat patch, meaning that gaps greater than this would be a barrier to movement and, potentially, finding a mate that was not too closely related.

The two techniques - population genetics and GPS tracking - combined to give a picture of the increasingly fragmented landscape confronting Tasmania's native mammals.

If having repeated visits from promiscuous males wasn't enough of a hassle, female spotted-tailed quolls in the Midlands also face another unique challenge, research has found.

Their home range was up to five times larger than the quolls of the state's North-East, meaning the territorial female must cover much more ground in defending its patch and finding enough food for her young.

"This could be to do with the fragmented habitat in the Midlands, meaning that quolls have to travel further for resources," Dr Proft said.

"It shows that in this area, we definitely need to make sure we have enough habitat."

With a life span of about three years, ensuring quolls have enough opportunity to move far and wide is crucial to finding a mate and guaranteeing the species can continue to flourish.

In the breeding season, young males will search for multiple females for mating. One male was tracked travelling 12 kilometres in 48 hours between Campbell Town and Conara.

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They are less restricted by habitat fragmentation compared with bettongs.

"Quolls are able to move through the landscape more easily. They can travel through open areas by moving along fence lines and in areas of slightly longer grass," Dr Proft said.

"They still have quite a connected genetic landscape. Habitat fragmentation hasn't yet flowed over into isolated populations at high risk of inbreeding, which is more likely with bettongs. The main priority for quolls at the moment is to ensure there is enough habitat to support a good-sized population in the Midlands."

Even if the risks aren't immediate, researchers are well aware of how fragile native animals can be. The rapid decline of the eastern-barred bandicoot in the Midlands has served as a warning.

Ensuring that quolls and bettongs survive and thrive is more than just establishing new woodlands. They need to be established in targeted ways drawing on the best available research.

Dr Proft said native wildlife corridors can be useful, but they can also be counter-productive if designed in the wrong way.

"We need to be wary of narrow corridors, like a thin line of trees connecting patches of habitat. Cats love those because they like to hunt on the boundaries between woodland and pasture," she said.

"Patches of habitat in the landscape containing lots of different trees and shrubs would work much better than thin lines of eucalyptus."

The quoll and bettong research will help guide native woodland regeneration efforts in the Midlands as part of a not-for-profit project involving the region's farmers, Greening Australia and other conservation organisations.

Dr Proft said it was vital to keep native mammal numbers strong, even if they were not yet at conservation concern levels.

"For bettongs and quolls, the Midlands is a key habitat area that they need, and that probably needs them too," she said.

"The bettongs are important for the maintenance of healthy woodlands. It's important to make sure we protect the habitat we have there, but also look at improving that to keep the population healthy and flourishing.

"Bettongs went extinct on the mainland mainly due to the introduction of foxes. It shows just how devastating one change in the ecosystem can be. If foxes become established in Tasmania, it would almost certainly wipe out a lot of these smaller species."