Bandicoots

By taking the pledge and signing up as a Bandicoot Buddy you and your family will be helping to protect and provide food and shelter for Hobart's endangered eastern barred bandicoots.

Bandicoot Buddies help monitor the health of Hobart's eastern barred bandicoot populations by joining our special iNaturalist project.

Bandicoot Buddies sign a pledge to do their very best to help keep our eastern barred bandicoots safe by:

• Becoming a citizen scientist as part of our Backyard Bandicoots iNaturalist project, reporting sightings of eastern barred bandicoots in your garden and neighbourhood.
• Keeping pet dogs and cats contained, especially at night and away from bandicoot habitat in your garden.
• Learning how to create and maintain wildlife habitat in your garden, including planting native species that provide food and shelter for bandicoots.

Become a Bandicoot Buddy

Well-watered gardens and parklands provide valuable feeding grounds for Hobart's eastern barred bandicoots. You can help in your own backyard by creating suitable habitat for them to forage, raise young and find shelter.

They won't live in your backyard if you have dogs or cats, but they may visit to feed – if they feel safe.

NRM North has created a series of unique designs to help you build an urban stronghold for these endangered bandicoots.

To get started visit the NRM North website to view the different designs and download the Urban Refuges booklet.

Cats

Cats are an ever-present threat for bandicoots. During the day they are attracted to the scent of bandicoot nests and can play with, attack or eat sleeping bandicoots. At night they can stalk foraging bandicoots. Even well-fed cats continue to hunt because it's instinctive.

Many cats also carry parasites in their gut called toxomplasmosis (toxo). It can cause a deadly disease in bandicoots and other marsupials. There is no ill-effect to the cat. The disease is spread when the parasite's microscopic eggs are deposited in cat faeces and on cat hair. Bandicoots get infected when they accidentally eat the eggs while foraging where cats have been.

Toxo can have ill-effects on pregnant women and people with low immunity. If concerned, talk to your doctor.

How can you help?

• For your cat's safety and the safety of our wildlife, don't let your cat roam during the day or at night, just as you would your dog. Confine your cat to an outdoor cat run or keep it indoors.
• Under the Cat Management Act, a cat owner must ensure their cat is desexed and microchipped by a veterinary surgeon from six months of age.
• Microchip your cat, fit them with a collar, two bells and an ID tag.
• Get your cat de-sexed to avoid unwanted kittens and stray cats.
• If you see a toxo-infected bandicoot, contact Bonorong Wildlife Rescue Service. Symptoms include wobbly walking, blindness and a loss of natural instinct to avoid predators.
• Never dispose of kitty litter in your garden as this can spread toxo. Put it in your wheelie bin.

Dogs

Dogs are attracted to the scent of bandicoots in their grassy nests. They love to explore them, sometimes injuring or killing sleeping bandicoots.

How can you help?

If you have bandicoots visiting or living in your garden, secure the area from roaming dogs, but remember to allow access for bandicoots.

If walking your dog in bushland in an off-lead area, don't let your dog wonder into the bush. Use an extender lead to safely extend your dog's range.

Cars

Cars don't kill bandicoots, drivers do. Bandicoots explore large territories during the night, which may require them to cross roads.

How can you help?

Slow down when driving at night, particularly in bush or rural areas. It's easier for us to slow down, than tell animals they should not cross roads!

Snail pellets

Snail pellets are poisonous. They can kill bandicoots, other wildlife and pets.

How can you help?

Avoid using pellets. There are safe alternatives, such as picking up snails after rain or making barriers with copper wire or lime (which snails won't cross).

Eastern barred bandicoots are small, nocturnal Australian marsupials. They like to live among tussock grasses. At night they emerge to feed on underground insects, leaving small, cone-shaped (nose-shaped!) holes as evidence of their visit.

On mainland Australia foxes and feral cats took a terrible toll on these vulnerable little creatures. This has caused them to become extinct in the wild. In Tasmania, we still have healthy, if shrinking, populations of eastern barred bandicoots. Including here in Hobart.

Busy breeders

Eastern barred bandicoots have a very fast breeding rate. However, they live for less than three years, with many dying from predation or disease before reaching adulthood. Breeding occurs between May and December, with up to four litters produced each year. One to four bandicoots are born per litter – a maximum of 16 young a year!

After a bandicoot egg is fertilised it takes just 12 days before the young bandicoot is born. This is one of the shortest pregnancies recorded for any mammal. At birth the bandicoot is a little smaller than a jelly bean. It attaches to a nipple inside its mother's near-opening pouch and grows rapidly on her rich milk. At nine weeks old, the young bandicoot leaves the nest and becomes independent.

Bandicoot nightlife

Bandicoots emerge from their nest to begin foraging within two hours of sunset. They are most active between 1 and 4 am, travelling between 70 and 100 metres a night. If disturbed, they either 'freeze' or, if chased by a predator, will take off in a 'bouncing run', trying to avoid capture by sudden turns.

Did you know?

How the bandicoot got its name:

Bandicoot is derived from the word 'Banda Couta', which is southern Indian for 'pig rat'. The name was given to our bandicoots due to their superficial resemblance to the large Indian 'pig rat' rodents.

There are other bandicoots:

Australia had 11 bandicoot species – three are now extinct. Tasmania is also home to the southern brown bandicoot, which is dark brown and has no body stripes. It lives in forest and heathland across the state and also makes cone-shaped feeding holes.

Bandicoots make noises:

When foraging eastern barred bandicoots make snuffling, snorting sounds. If two adults forage near each other, one will often chase the other away while 'grunting'.

Bandicoots help farmers and gardeners!

Bandicoots eat pasture pests – corbies and cockchafers – that feed on the roots of crops and lawns. Their small diggings do not cause any long-term damage to lawns, gardens or farmland. In fact, you might feel privileged to have these native marsupials visiting!

There are fears eastern barred bandicoot numbers in Tasmania are in decline. This means it has never been more important to monitor the health of local populations.

If you live in Hobart you can help by joining our Backyard Bandicoots program as a Bandicoot Buddy. You can start recording your own observations of eastern barred bandicoots in your neighbourhood. Even your own garden!

The growth in citizen science in Australia is making a huge contribution to our understanding of threatened species. That includes our own eastern barred bandicoots.

How to start

• sign up for and download the iNaturalist app
• start recording and adding your observations to our Backyard Bandicoots iNaturalist project!

The more people who join our Backyard Bandicoots program and actively monitor and record bandicoots in their own neighbourhood the better our monitoring results.