A small marsupial mammal that lives in the desert.
The Bilby is the only Australian species of Bandicoot that makes an underground home. The burrow spirals downwards up to 2 meters and can be up to 3 meters long. The entrance is concealed at the base of a termite mound, grass clump or shrub.
Bilbies are nocturnal animals. They stay hidden in deep underground burrows during the day to avoid the hot desert sun and emerge only after dark to look for food. They have poor eyesight but great olfactory apparatus. 🙂 They emerge from the burrow in the dead of night, around midnight. Their tucker includes grass and acacia seeds, insects, spiders, witchety grubs, termites, bulbs and fungi.
Bilbies live alone or in small family groups. In ideal conditions, a square kilometer of habitat can support up to 16 bilbies. A male's eligibility to mate depends on his rank in the hierarchy. Females can breed throughout the year and in a good year she can have 4 litters of 1 to 2 young. As a species, the Bilby struggles against habitat change and feral animals, but it has an incredible ability to survive in one of Australia's harshest environments. The Bilby does not need to drink and, instead of sweating out precious moisture, it's large, thin ears are packed with blood vessels which allow excess body heat to escape.
