Sunday, 8 May 2016

Long-nosed Bandicoot

Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta.
The Long-nosed Bandicoot Perameles nasuta is the largest of the eleven species of this marsupial. It's about 40 cm from twitchy pointy snout to the tip of its relatively short tail and weighs about 1.5 kilograms. The species occurs all along the eastern coast of Australia. 

These solitary bandicoots eat all sorts of things -- roots, grubs, fungi -- coming out at night to forage like this one and hiding in the undergrowth during the day. They like lawns, digging little holes in them to find food. The hunched appearance is typical.

They have the most astonishingly short gestation period -- 12.5 days -- then the baby spends its first fifty days in the mother's backwards facing pouch.

The species was first described in 1804, by French naturalist Étienne Louis Geoffroy. Later they were painted by John Gould.



chm said...

Nice furry animal!

Sheila said...

There was an article yesterday in The Guardian about Australia's
having 'quietly' added 49 species to its endangered list. It sounds as though the forces of greed via mining and lumbering
(is that a word?) are destroying habitat at a fast clip. Makes
you sick to read about what we humans do for the love of money.
Of course, I know it means jobs.

Susan said...

I would have said that the single biggest threat to small mammals in Australia was feral cats and I am under the impression that most ecologists would agree with that. Of course habitat loss is a big problem all over the world. In many places in Australia the mining and forestry industries have peaked and are now on their way out, but there will still be places being utterly ravaged in a last ditch attempt to take everything before the general populace wakes up to what is happening. The irksome thing is that it doesn't necessarily mean jobs. Mining uses far fewer people than is generally realised, and it isn't local people who necessarily benefit, either directly or indirectly. Australian mining companies habitually use FIFO. However, it has to be said that towns close to the mining operations have been transformed in the last decade. There clearly is a certain trickle down effect of the mining.

Emm said...

What a cute little furry. His name sounds like something from "Alice".

Unknown said...

You're so right on this - feral cats are the number 1 enemy.

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