Bandicoots

    This information is too bachelor in the publication 'Wild neighbours: Bandicoots' (PDF, 1.7MB) .

    Nocturnal northern brown bandicoots—rarely seen in a good light.

    Nocturnal northern brown bandicoots—rarely seen in a skillful lite.

    A quiet neighbour

    Many people living on the fringe of bushland go about their lives unaware of the wildlife sharing their yards and gardens. But fifty-fifty though we rarely cantankerous paths with these animals, they do leave clues. When the inkling is a finger-deep, conical hole in the lawn or garden, the company is likely to be either a northern dark-brown or maybe a long-nosed bandicoot. Like any serenity neighbour, bandicoots don't usually concenter friends or enemies. They only make themselves known when their diggings event in pockmarked lawns and unearthed vegetables. Fifty-fifty then, a bandicoot could either be seen as a pest or a pest controller — depending on what it eats and where information technology eats it.

    This makes living with bandicoots a matter of give and take: balancing the benefits of a flawless lawn and garden with the noesis that your belongings is part of the habitat of a native marsupial that may be helping to proceed pests out of your lawn.

    Born to dig: long claws for digging holes and a longer snout for probing them.

    Born to dig: long claws for digging holes and a longer snout for probing them.

    Agreement bandicoots

    The best way to learn nearly bandicoots is to watch them. They're very wary and rarely venture far from the safety of long grass or thick undergrowth. A few weeks of watching where bandicoot holes occur, and working out when the bandicoots are active, will improve the chances of being in the right identify at the correct fourth dimension to see a bandicoot. And then it's a matter of sitting quietly with a torch, and waiting. But even then you may not see 1 — if the bandicoot sees you first. Unfortunately, most bandicoots are seen when it's too late — subsequently they've been killed on the road or by cats or dogs. This is a reminder that nosotros oftentimes take greater impacts on wild fauna than they take on usa.

    Finding a dead bandicoot besides provides a rare adventure to look at one closely. When having a close wait at a bandicoot it is useful to remember that they pick upward parasitic ticks (including paralysis ticks) as they move through the undergrowth. These ticks can also attach themselves to humans and pets. If not removed, paralysis ticks tin kill cats and dogs and crusade severe reactions in humans — particularly children. Bandicoots are only one of the small mammals that play host to ticks and are not responsible for 'tick plagues'.

    Bandicoots are designed to eat underground food, although they won't go past insects and even berries plant on the ground. With a sensitive nose they can readily sniff out insects, worms, roots and even fungi. Once a food particular is located, they scoop out a conical hole with the rake-like claws on their front feet. The long, pointed face probes the bottom of the hole and whatsoever food is quickly pinched out between fine, needle-like teeth.

    A common food for bandicoots living almost suburban areas is the larva of scarab beetles (commonly known as 'lawn grubs'). These grubs feed on grass roots and kill patches of lawn. They emerge in summer as foliage-eating beetles similar the 'Christmas beetle'. By eating these grubs, bandicoots actually protect lawns and reduce the number of beetles that can later cause problems by defoliating gum trees. With their heads stuck in the ground, bandicoots can exist at risk from unseen domestic cats and dogs. Big, mobile ears positioned well dorsum on the bandicoot's head go on them aware of what'southward going on around them. Northern brown and long-nosed bandicoots mainly give birth from late winter to the post-obit fall only will breed throughout the year. This would coincide with the times when scarab beetles and other insects are available in their underground larval stage.

    Being a marsupial, the females have a pouch and requite birth after a very curt pregnancy of a little over twelve days. A calendar week earlier the young are born they are little more than a clump of cells. At birth they await more similar broiled beans than bandicoots, still attached to the female parent by individual umbilical cords. The northern brown bandicoot usually has ii to iv young, while the long-nosed bandicoot usually has ii to three.

    Afterwards sixty days the young are independent adults and can breed before they are half dozen months old. Very curt pregnancies are a trait of all marsupials. This is an efficient style of producing young quickly when food is
    arable.

    A long-nosed bandicoot has little chance against a fast car on a wide road.

    A long-nosed bandicoot has little chance against a fast car on a wide route.

    Living with bandicoots

    Having bandicoots as neighbours means a number of things.

    They are living proof that residential areas can help run into the habitat needs of small native mammals. If bandicoots are seen regularly (including immature ones) and so it also indicates that the local population is not threatened by predation from domestic cats and dogs or at risk from having to cantankerous roads — another plus for other local small-scale mammals. From the other side of the fence, bandicoots will brand holes in lawns and gardens. This is a trouble if holding owners value their lawns and gardens intact above the lawn chow removal services provided by bandicoots. What activeness is and so taken is guided past whether a bandicoot is seen every bit a problem or a reminder that wild animals on your land tin can piece of work for you by keeping a range of insect pests in cheque.

    If you want bandicoots to be 'people-friendly'

    Go on the bandicoot out of places where you don't want it to be. Put craven wire around or over vegetable gardens. The wire should be at least 500 mm high and be dug into the soil to a depth of 150 mm. Backyard grubs can be killed past spraying then that lawns are no longer seen every bit feeding sites. Seek communication from a plant plant nursery before choosing a spray to ensure that it doesn't affect the bandicoots and other animals that might feed on the lawn grubs. Give bandicoots something else to eat, away from gardens and lawns. If you lot want your garden and bandicoots likewise, a solution may exist to take an open compost heap or an area of thick mulch where bandicoots tin can get to feed. By combining this with garden fencing and lawn chow control you tin can get the best out of your garden and lawn while bandicoots feed somewhere else.

    If you want to be 'bandicoot-friendly'

    If bandicoot holes in the lawn are non a problem — or the problem is outweighed by the benefits of their natural lawn grub control and their ability to aerate the soil — so yous may want to let bandicoots be bandicoots. The simple solution is to keep an old watering can full of river sand or friable soil on manus and just top up whatsoever holes as they announced. This will keep your backyard level and aid to aerate your soil.

    Having bandicoots around tin can too be interesting. Over fourth dimension, yous learn more than virtually their behaviours and life histories. You can follow their lives from weaning to when they take their own young. Individual bandicoots tin can sometimes be identified by distinguishing marks like scars, notched ears or missing tails. Even their behaviours may vary plenty so that you lot can tell ane from another.

    Over time, you lot will run into bandicoots get adults, come and go, endure injuries and illness, and eventually die. If bandicoots are regularly seen (including young ones) then it indicates that the local population is probably stable. If you lot are finding dead bandicoots, yous may be able to help limit this by keeping your cat in at night or driving slowly in places where you've seen road kills. If yous own a puddle, make a 'wildlife ramp' out of a piece of wood so that bandicoots and other animals that accidentally fall in can climb out again. Studying your local bandicoots tin can be a fascinating way to learn about how they live.

    When all else fails

    If you want the bandicoots removed information technology is of import to retrieve that they are protected. They tin only be removed with the permission of the department if they are identified every bit a major problem. However, bandicoots are territorial and only announced in higher numbers when their young are almost contained. These young soon disperse and the problem literally goes abroad. If a bandicoot is removed, some other bandicoot will probably accept its identify. Similarly, if a bandicoot is relocated, it then has to find a new and unoccupied territory if information technology is to survive. In most cases a relocated bandicoot volition either displace a resident bandicoot from its territory or remain a vagrant. Either manner, one bandicoot will be without a territory and exist exposed to greater risks of predation and stress.

    And what if the bandicoots just disappear?

    As people place more than demand on land, the wildlife living there tin merely skid away unnoticed and chop-chop go forgotten. Many areas that were bushland where bandicoots once lived are now cleared. Beingness mammals that live on the ground, bandicoots are ane of the first native animals to disappear when bushland becomes fragmented, the undergrowth is removed and domestic and feral predators are introduced. Bandicoots are an indicator species that shows that an expanse is likely to be home to a range of other species with similar needs to their ain, or are linked to them through food chains as predators, prey or even decomposers. Where bandicoots still live aslope residential areas it shows that these properties tin be role of a healthy ecosystem. Maybe living with a 'bandicoot trouble' is not a problem later all but just a sign that you live a petty fleck closer to nature than you realised. And past living with these quiet neighbours, you are playing a role in keeping a larger wild fauna community intact.

    Sick, injured or orphaned animals

    If you happen to come up across a ill, injured or orphaned native creature, delight contact the RSPCA Qld. Further information about what you tin can exercise if you come up beyond a sick, injured or orphaned native animal is available on the departmental website.