Bilby

Greater bilby ( lagotis macrotis ), drawing by John Gould

The Greater bilby ( lagotis macrotis ) is a living species in Australia bag from the group of bandicoots. Its closest relative, the little bilby, is extinct in the 20th century.

Features

Large bilby, like all bandicoots stocky built animals with elongated snout. They reach a body length 29-55 centimeters, added the 20 to 29 centimeters long tail. Your weight is 0.6 to 2.5 kg, with the males are significantly heavier than the females. Their fur is long and silky, it is colored blue-gray to light gray at the top, the bottom is white. The front half of the tail is black and the rear half -white in color, there is also a small tassel. The head is characterized by the pointed, hairless snout and long, finely hairy ears. The powerful front legs carrying three suitable for digging claws, the hind legs are extended kangaroo similar and serve the jumping locomotion.

Distribution and habitat

Formerly the Great bilby were distributed to more than 70 % of the area of the Australian mainland, and they lived in forests, savannas, bush country and deserts. Today, they are limited to some dry areas in the interior of Australia. They come naturally before the Tanamiwüste in the Northern Territory, in the Gibson Desert and the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia as well as in an isolated population in southwestern Queensland.

Lifestyle and diet

The animals are nocturnal; during the day they retreat into burrows. The burrows, digging the animals themselves, have an opening and extend spirally up to two meters in depth. When sleeping, the animals lay not go there, but set up on his hind legs, put the muzzle between the front legs and cover your eyes with the long ears. At night, they go in search of food, where they move with a bunny-hopping gait.

They live mostly solitary, in a building is usually just an animal to be found, but an animal can have up to twelve burrows in his district. Sometimes, these animals together in pairs.

They are omnivores who dig their food with their powerful front legs out of the earth. They eat mainly insects and their larvae, and small vertebrates, sometimes underground plant parts. They cover their fluid intake from the diet and do not need to drink.

Reproduction

The female has an open back pouch with eight teats therein. The propagation can be done throughout the year, earlier than the animals still living in the temperate zones of Australia, there was, however, a fixed mating season from March to May According to a 14 - day gestation, the female gives birth to one or two pups. These are small and underdeveloped, as with all marsupials, they spend their first 80 days of life in the mother's pouch. Then they stay for another two weeks, their construction and are weaned after. Sexual maturity occurs in females with 180 to 220 days and in males with 270-420 days. The maximum age of an animal in captivity lasted seven years.

Threat

Until the early 20th century Great bilby over large parts of Australia were widespread, then began a dramatic decline in populations. The reasons for this lay in the hunting for their silky fur, in the enactment by introduced red foxes and domestic cats in the displacement by the similarly entrained wild rabbits and in the destruction of their habitat by conversion to pasture or other agricultural areas. Today, they are forced back into remote, sparsely populated and not inhabited by foxes regions. The IUCN estimates that the total stock to less than 10,000 adult animals and lists the species as "endangered" ( vulnerable ).

Large bilby are protected in Australia. It run some captive breeding and re- resettlement programs, it tries to make these animals in several national parks and other protected areas in Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia back home. As a basis for conservation efforts a nationwide conservation program has been established.

Since the 1970s there have been efforts to offer bilby chocolate ( " Easter Bilbies " ) than native alternative to the Easter Bunny. The income of that chocolate bilby be used partly for measures to protect the species.