02 June 2008

Southern Brown Bandicoot - Isoodon obesulus

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Southern Brown Bandicoot - Isoodon obesulus

A very cute rabbit sized marsupial with a long nose and a short tail that was once common across most of southern Australia, but now only common in areas protected from cats and foxes. Surprisingly even weeds like blackberry thickets offer these animals protection from predators and provide a place for them to escape. I allow pockets of bush to grow very thick and tangled, but there is a problem with this solution, that being the bandicoots also require open burnt areas to collect insects that are attracted to vegetation regrowth, they will also eat some fungi that also tend to do better in these conditions. Often the bandicoots digging will alert you to their presence as they are a distinctively neat conical shape.