Bandicoots are cute Australian animals with a difficult fate
Everyone knows well that in Australia, almost every animal familiar to us has a marsupial analogue. More precisely, it was once. Unfortunately, the endemics of the Green Continent are gradually disappearing, such as the marsupial wolf. Mostly, apart from kangaroos, small marsupials, such as rats, martens or moles, have been preserved. Bandicoots, which are sometimes called "marsupial badgers", also almost died out. We tell you about their difficult fate.
There are several types of these animals. The most famous of them is called "rabbit bandicoot". Although with rabbits, as, indeed, with badgers, this animal has no kinship, a certain similarity is observed. The rabbit bandicoot, or bilby, is endowed with long ears and strong hind legs, lives in self-dug burrows, and also has soft and valuable fur.
In fact — what is not a rabbit? But the bealby is not a herbivore at all. This is clearly seen by his small but very sharp teeth. Its food is insects and small mammals such as mice and rats. The bandicoot, which weighs only 2-3 kg, bravely attacks prey that is slightly inferior to it in size. You can understand it — in the Australian semi-deserts, where bilbies are found, you don't have to sort it out much and you need to use every chance on the hunt.
The lifestyle of the bilby is also different from that of the rabbit. These animals do not like to settle in companies, preferring solitude. Even Bandicoots living in pairs are not easy to meet, and there are no colonies of animals at all. The burrows of bandicoots reach a depth of 1.5 meters and have the shape of a downward spiral. During the day they hide from the scorching sun underground, and at dusk they go hunting.
Oddly enough, this small predator has very few enemies. The most dangerous of them is man. Bandicoots are being exterminated for their valuable fur. It is soft, gray with a bluish tinge, and very warm. Of course, Australians, most of the year languishing from the heat, do not need furs. But Europeans, Americans and Asians are happy to buy products from the skins of an exotic animal.
The second terrible enemy of the bandicoot, oddly enough, is rabbits. These harmless animals, brought to the continent by European sailors, have multiplied incredibly. They do not conflict with bilby and at a young age can even become their prey. But huge colonies of rodents occupy territories that previously belonged exclusively to bandicoots. Rabbits eat all the vegetation, which is why small animals disappear.
If rabbit bandicoots, in addition to ears and the ability to live in burrows, borrowed the ability to breed from rabbits, then there would be no problems. They would compete successfully. But, alas, bilbies reproduce very slowly. A female at the peak of reproductive age gives birth to only a couple of cubs a year.
Like all marsupials, the cubs of these animals are born small and very weak. After they are born, they stay in their mother's bag for a long time until they become relatively independent.
People, realizing that Australia could soon lose another unique species, began to rescue bandicoots. But it was not so easy. Of course, the ban on hunting animals by hunters helped them, but the problem with rabbits is not solved.
Traps, traps and poison, with which they try to reduce the number of rodents, also destroy bandicoots. Therefore, scientists have to constantly invent new ways to save these animals.