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Northern Brown Bandicoot
Photo: C & D
Frith
Australia's Cape York
Peninsula
Northern Brown Bandicoot: Isoodon macrourus
- It is a carnivorous marsupial with a reverse pouch, so that will not fill
with soil when digging.
- Speckled brown-black coat covers its back, with its underside light in colour.
- Short-sighted.
Habitat:
- Common in the rainforest
- Found in areas of low ground cover, including tall grass and dense shrubbery.
- Days are spent in a well concealed nest which has a heap of ground litter
covering a shallow dip, hence providing an underground enclosure with loose regions at
each end for entry and exit.
Diet:
- Food is found at night time over a sparse range of land. The animal prefers to
eat insects and other invertebrates such as spiders and earthworms.
- Food obtained from the rainforest floor, rotted logs or by digging underground
with their forepaws.
Social Behaviour:
- Males are more aggressive and have larger feeding ranges than females.
- Males and females only come together during the mating season.
Viewing opportunities:
- Will often be seen after dark at Chambers Wildlife Rainforest Lodge digging in
the rainforest floor.
- Commonly seen on Lake Eacham roadway illuminated by the car headlights.
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Additional Information:
- Other common names for this bandicoot include the Bridled Bandicoot,
Giant Bridled Bandicoot, Long-tailed Short-nosed Bandicoot, and Large Northern Bandicoot.
- This bandicoot lives in the generally higher rainfall zones from the east coast
of Australia north of the Hawkesbury River to the tip of Cape York in Queensland, and
across to the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia.
- It likes regions of low ground cover, tall grasses and dense shrubbery. Habitats
include grassland, woodland, open forest and occasionally closed forest.
- Spending its day in its heap of ground litter, it often kicks a layer of soil
over the top of the nest when its rains for water proofing. They also sometimes rest in
hollow logs or under tussocks.
- The Northern Brown Bandicoot is omnivorous, and as well as eating insects,
spiders and earthworms, it enjoys berries, grass seeds and plant fibres such as sugar cane
too. In search for food it moves over a home range of 1-6 hectares at night.
- Males are larger and more aggressive than females, and have bigger home ranges.
To mark the ground and vegetation during aggressive encounters, a gland behind the ear is
used. The males and females only appear to come together for mating.
- Breeding may occur throughout the year in Queensland, but only in the late winter
in New South Wales. Some females may become pregnant again when the young are about 50
days old. A high reproductive rate is possible as females become sexually mature before
they are fully grown and can produce several litters in the one breeding season.
Bandicoots in General:
- Bandicoots and Bilbies both belong to the same superfamily called
perameloids.
- Several species of bandicoots and bilbies have become rare or extinct since
European invasion, due to the destruction of their habitat or food supply.
- They are now protected by law, so it is an offence to harm them. Permits to trap
and remove them may be issued, but only in some special circumstances.
- They are solitary, strictly terrestrial, and all have quite long pointed heads
and compact bodies. The forelimbs are generally short and the hind-limbs resemble those of
macropods. They have a powerful thigh, an elongated foot, and its axis is continued into a
large clawed fourth toe. As in macropods, the second and third toes are joined together in
a condition known as syndactyly. They have a short tail with little or no function in
locomotion.
- Bandicoots are native marsupials that shelter during the day in bushland, along
creek beds and in other thickly grassed areas, emerging at night to search for food.
- Using its forelimbs, it digs a conical hole that it is able to explore with its
long snout when foraging for food. It does not simply dig anywhere – it uses its
excellent sense of smell and hearing to locate grubs and scarab beetles for example.
- These sorts of grubs can destroy gardens, so gardeners should acknowledge holes
in lawns dug by bandicoots, although the sight of the holes may be upsetting at first.
- Bandicoots are about 50cm overall. They have brown fur above and creamy white fur
on the belly.
- Their long jaws accommodate 4 to 5 pairs of upper incisors and 3 pairs of lower
incisors. They also have a pair of well-developed canines, followed by 3 pairs of upper
and lower premolars and 4 pairs of sharp-crowned upper and lower molars.
- Bandicoots mainly eat insects and other arthropods, supplemented by small
rodents, fruit and soft tubers.
- They make a nest of leaf litter and other debris raked up into an oval-shaped
pile about 45cm long. The Northern Brown Bandicoot and the Long-nosed Bandicoot (the two
species found in the Wet Tropics of Queensland) share the shortest gestation recorded in
mammals – 12 ½ days from conception to birth.
- Embryos of bandicoots make a connection with the uterine wall that is
structurally very similar to that of a placental mammal. The placenta however does not
develop into a large structure for the exchange of materials between the blood of the
mother and the embryo.
- Bandicoots usually have 8 nipples, but only carry about 4 in the pouch at a time.
This is because the nipple increases in size when it is in use – if a nipple has been
vacated recently, it is too large for a newborn animal to attach itself. This means that
two successive litters cannot comprise of more than 8 young (an average of 4 per litter).
- The young are tiny and not yet completely developed, but they must make their way
on their own to the pouch. Recent research has shown that the young develops from a
formless clump of cells to a mobile living animal in the 5 ½ before birth.
- Due to the absence of fossils, there is no one acceptable explanation for the
origin of the bandicoot.
- Sheep, cattle and rabbits have caused many problems with bandicoots as they
disturb the ground layer of vegetation, however, along with other native marsupials (eg
koalas, gliders and possums), some bandicoots have survived urbanisation to remain a
surprising feature of suburban life in several areas.
- Bandicoots play host to ticks and are often blamed for the presence of ticks and
tick plagues. To place all responsibility on bandicoots in unjustified though.
Additional Information:
Additional
Bandicoot Information
Northern
Brown Bandicoots of the Lamington National Park.
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