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Bandicoots
There are several species of Bandicoot around Australia, and
although they can be seen during the day are generally nocturnal.
Bandicoots are small creatures only about the size of a rat and eat
small insects and plants. Several of the Bandicoots around
Australia include the Eastern Barred Bandicoot, which is now rare
around Australia and the Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isopodan
obesulus) found in eastern and western parts of Australia.
Cars don’t kill bandicoots,
drivers do. Bandicoots
explore large territories
during the night, which
may require them to cross
roads.
Loss of habitat is a major
threat. Bandicoot homes
are destroyed when we
clear bushland, grassland
and dense or prickly
weeds. They even live in
crops.
Foxes are the greatest threat to our bandicoots. They
have recently been introduced to Tasmania. On mainland
Australia they were introduced in the 1870s. Since that
time these efficient hunters have been responsible for the
extinction of many small mammal species, including
playing a major role in the near extinction of the Eastern
Barred Bandicoot. Along with Tasmanian bettongs and
eastern quolls, bandicoots are the most vulnerable
marsupials to predation by foxes (the former have been
extinct on the mainland for some time).
FOOD / DIET
Conservation status
Some desert species of bandicoot are extinct and
the remaining species are vulnerable. If their
habitats change, they will become endangered.
They are also killed by introduced species such as
foxes and feral cats.
Diet
They search on the ground
looking for insects, spiders,
seeds, berries and other
similar food. When looking for
food they dig in the soil and
rummage in the fallen leaves
on the ground. They hold their
food in their front paws to eat
it.
Physical features
Bandicoots are mostly solitary
animals, which means they are
generally on their own. They are
marsupials about the size of a cat.
They have a pointy snout, humped
back and a thin tail. A female
bandicoot has a backward facing
pouch. This is so that when she is
digging, she doesn't fill her pouch
with soil.
There are about twenty kinds of
bandicoot, including the Northern
Brown, Long-nosed, Southern Brown,
Eastern Barred and Western Barred
bandicoots. The Western Barred
bandicoot is now only found on a few
islands in Shark Bay, Western
Australia. The Eastern Barred
bandicoot is now found only in
Tasmania and in a few places in
Victoria.
Life Cycle / Reproduction
Marsupials are not pregnant for very long,
so that when the young are born, they
are very tiny and hardly developed at all.
They move into their mother's pouch to
complete their development. Unusually
for marsupials, bandicoots in the womb
are attached to it by cords, and after they
are born, the young climb the cords to
reach the mother's pouch. The young of
the Northern Brown bandicoot and the
Long-nosed bandicoot are in the womb
for only twelve and a half days, the
shortest time of any marsupial. Inside the
pouch, the young drink milk from teats, as
they grow and develop.
Bibliography
http://www.bandicoot-books.com/bandicoot_information.html
http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/Bandicoots
Long-nosed Bandicoots: http://wildlife-australia.com/lbandicoot.htm
Victoria: Isoodon obesulus
obesulus: Near Threatened
(Department of Sustainability and
Environment Threatened Species
Advisory List 2003)