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Bandicoot
Bandicoot
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Southern Brown Bandicoot - Locations
Bandicoots are small Australia marsupials that live on the ground. Compared to other Australian animals, such as Koalas, Kangaroos & Possums they are not well known because they only usually come out at dusk and the evenings and are not seen very often.
Bandicoots are only found in Australia and New Guinea, the 2 common types are the Southern Brown and the Northern Brown and live in our forests. Some other types live in the drier parts of Australia.
Bandicoots are often seen on dusk and occasionally early mornings at the front of your chalet feeding on provided specialised feed pellets - sometimes nibbling on the bird seed. During the day they sleep in well-hidden nests.
Southern Brown Bandicoots are found in the green areas, Northern Brown are found in the red areas.
They feed their young on milk & are covered in fur and give birth to live young. |
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These Brown Bandicoots are two of the nine different types that once lived in Australia. Unfortunately only six have survived.
The others are the rabbit-eared Bandicoots called the Bilbly's and live in drier country and are now endangered, the Long Nosed and Eastern Barred Bandicoot has stripes on it's hindquarters.
Bandicoots are similar size to a rabbit but have a long tail similar to a rats, the male can grow up to 36cm and weigh up to 1.6kg.
The female grow up to 33cm and weigh up to 1.1kg.
A female's pouch faces rear wards to stop the babies being filled up with dirt, as they dig allot.
Their fur is usually dark-grey brown on their backs and a much lighter colour underneath. They do not live very long approx. 3 years in the wild.
Although Bandicoots sometimes eat small lizards or small mammals such as mice they mainly eat insects, grubs, spiders and worms.
They may eat parts of plants such as berries, seeds or roots.
There digging leaves a small beautiful cone-shaped hole, they do not seems to leave droppings where they have been digging as rabbits do. |
Male Bandicoot
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The nest for day time looks like a flattened heap of sticks, grass and earth, but hollow logs provided safety from predators Eg: feral cats & foxes.
They usually feed at night time and are very active and defend their territory.
They may attack a rival and the fights can lead to the death on one of the Bandicoots.
We have photos of a Bandicoots called Scar with rather large wounds on each hip which has since healed only leaving a small bald patch.
Our other large Bandicoot is called Barney how has been visiting since we lost our Jack Russell dog in March '99, he is very friendly and will eat from your hand. Some females have been sighted with a heavy load of babies.
The bandicoots have proved to be very efficient Lawn Beetle eradicators! |
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As Bandicoots are marsupials they only partly develop inside their mother, between 2-4 are born at a time.
At birth they crawl into her pouch to feed on the milk to finish their development, usually in autumn or winter.
Young Bandicoots are born as little as 12 days after mating, each newborn is blind, hairless and only 13mm long and weighs a quarter of a gram!
Each Bandicoot attaches itself to one of eight teats inside the pouch, by the time they are 6-7 weeks old they have fur and their eyes are open and they have their first teeth. They now poke their heads out of the pouch, by 8-9 weeks they start exploring and soon leave their mother.
Before Europeans arrived in Australia Bandicoots had few natural enemies, such as Dingoes, Thylacines (Tasmanian Tigers) and snakes.
The local Aboriginals also used to hunt them for food.
When white man arrived just 22yrs ago they brought in foxes and cats and have destroyed large tracts of their habitat.
Yelverton Brook is going to predator proof fence their 100acs and attempt to eradicate all foxes, cats & rabbits to provide a safe and secure area. |
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 Below is feeding advice sourced from various other Sanctuaries, Zoos and Rehabilitation Centres.
Perth Zoo - Clare Straltfort (contact)
Diet for captive Bandicoots -
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Pinkie Mice
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Tin cat food - Eg: Dine beef/chicken
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Dog/Cat dry feed - Eg: Ekanuba
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Diced vegies - spinach, carrot, corn
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Fruit - dried Figs, Apples, Pear, Banana
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Ratio of feed per day - 3 mice, 1 pellet, 1 tablespoon of mixed fruit & veg
Kanyana Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre - Gooseberry Hill - Perth
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Muesli
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Peanut butter paste
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chop vegies into 1/4" cubes - pumpkin, sweet potato, grapes, apples, banana
Karakamia Sanctuary - Chidlow north east of Perth
Land for Wildlife Bandicoots notes -
Wildlife Notes No. 5 April 1998 Encouraging Quendas
Diet- Supplementary feeding is not harmful is allowed in small doses, although in most
cases it is not actually necessary. Although they are primarily insectivores, Quendas
have been known to accept small quantities of dog & cat food, Muesli, mixed dried fruits, horse feed, grain, peanut butter, bread bird seed, banana and potato crisps!
The main thing is to avoid encouraging wild animals to become solely dependant on artificial feeding, as in the long term this would prove harmful to the animal (incorrect diet, you going on holiday, etc:) We now provide special formulated Bandicoot pellets in your chalet. |
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With our observations and clients we have found over the last year since the Bandicoots have been visiting that they only come in when they feel safe and wish to grace us with their presence! They also dig in the lawns for beetles & worms.
We lost our small Jack Russell to snake bite in March several years ago and within 3 weeks Bandicoots were regular visitors to the chalets. Our small dog loved chasing rabbits and now we feel a Rabbit would have seemed similar to a Bandicoot for a small dog, hence we now have no dog.
As we do not have a 100% occupancy and our wildlife is not dependant on our small supplementary feeding. We will be adding a copy of these feeding notes into our compendium in each chalet to educate our clients on the correct feeding of the animals.
The Bandicoots do not appear every night and often when the clients are in their outdoor
spa they venture out! Possums seem to come and go at there own free will and seem to disappear for several weeks at a time, indicating that they do not rely on the food we provide at all!
We feel we are educating our clients on the valuable native wildlife and how special they are. It seems a worry when clients do not even know the difference between a Bandicoot and a Possum!!!
Our current feeding notes you will find on the dining room table show pictures to help this problem and suggested size of feed quantities. |
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