Isoodon obesulus

A gentle, secretive marsupial facing extinction!

Conservation Status

Endangered species in New South Wales (Threatened Species Conservation Act). At national level, the species is also listed as Endangered on the Environmental Protection and Biodivesity Conservation Act.

What does it look like?

This beautiful marsupial has subtle colouring and a distinctively thin tail with a pointed end.  The fur on its body, tail and feet can vary from dark grey to yellowish-brown. Its belly, however, is a soft creamy white.  An adult southern brown bandicoot is about 30cm in length and weighs between 400 - 1600 grams.

Where does it live?

The Southern Brown Bandicoot lives alone in heathland, scrub or in an open forest that has a heathy understorey.  They are not generally found in wet forests, and they like a well-drained soil. After a bushfire, you may find bandicoots are some of the first animals to return to burnt heathland from neighbouring habitat.

Individual bandicoots live in overlapping territories, and a female will forage in a smaller area than a male: while males have a home range of between 5-20 hectares, females have a range of around 2-3 hectares. They are also a secretive species that prefer to stay under or near cover when foraging.

Using grass, plant material and even earth, the bandicoot builds a cosy nest in dense scrub. Sometimes they will even use a rabbit burrow instead of building a nest from scratch. Once complete, this nest is their haven after a busy night looking for food.

There are five geographically isolated subspecies. Subspecies obesulus is distributed from the Sydney area through south-eastern New South Wales and southern Victoria to Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island, South Austalia.

While no Southern Brown Bandicoots have been confirmed in the Pittwater Council area, the adjacent  Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park is the stronghold of the species in the Sydney area.  In 1990, the Southern Brown Bandicoot was also recorded at Kimbriki Tip, and a recent study has shown these bandicoots are living in both sections of Garigal National Park. This means the Southen Brown Bandicoot may utilise bushland areas that are connected to the national parks, where suitable habitat occurs. Evidence of travel outside the national parks is shown in two records from Elanora Heights, one in 2000 and one in 2008.

What does it eat?

If you see a snout-shaped hole in your garden, then it has probably been made by a bandicoot!  They are expert searchers for food and they like a varied diet. This can include common grubs and garden 'pests' such as insects and spiders. But rather than forage in the open, they prefer to stay under cover or have protective cover close to hand. They use their long noses to dig conical shaped holes up to 10 centimetres deep as they search for food both on and under the ground.

Bandicoots like to eat:

• Insects
• Earthworms
• Insect larvae
• Spiders

And they supplement their diet by digging into the ground to find:

• Plant tubers and roots
• Truffle-like fungi

What is its life cycle?

When food is abundant, the Southern Brown Bandicoot can reproduce quickly.  Bandicoots will mate at any time of the year, usually following heavy rain. After a remarkably short gestation of around 11-12 days (the shortest known gestation of any marsupial), the female bandicoot gives birth to between one and six young. 

The mother bandicoot feeds the babies with her milk for about two months. Then after this relatively short time, the young bandicoots venture from the nest and become independent.  They will live for around four years, and a female bandicoot may have two or three litters each year (but it may be less if food is scarce).

What are the threats?

Bandicoots have been severely affected by housing, roads and other forms of development.  The Southern Brown Bandicoot is no exception and its populations have become extremely fragmented.  Like many ground-dwelling native animals, they are vulnerable to introduced animals such as feral and domestic cats, dogs and foxes.

In Pittwater, it is difficult to manage the remaining populations of bandicoots. They are likely to occur in the area, but there are no known sites.  The bandicoot's secretive and nocturnal habits make them difficult to observe in the wild. However, there are several key threats that will affect possible bandicoot populations in the Pittwater area.

These are:

• Degradation of habitat
• Wildfires and hazard reduction burns, which can kill a large number of bandicoots, reduce their cover and destroy food supplies
• Absence of wildlife corridors
• Feral cats, dogs and foxes
• Deaths on roads

What can we do to protect it?

All bandicoot species are protected in New South Wales.  We can help protect the Southern Brown Bandicoot by:

• Improving fire management - This is an important and complex issue with this species.  Wildfires and hazard reduction burns can have a great impact on bandicoot populations in the short term.  However, areas regenerating after fire appear to provide a habitat that is particularly favoured by Southern Brown Bandicoots and may be critical for the long-term survival of the population.
• Keeping cats and dogs indoors, and never let dogs and cats roam in national parks
• Providing wildlife corridors
• Rehabilitating sick, injured or orphaned animals.
• Educating the community about bandicoots.  Some people dislike bandicoots because they carry ticks and dig up lawns and gardens searching for food. However, there are many animals (including domestic and feral cats and dogs) that carry the paralysis tick.  In fact, these animals are far more likely to spread ticks as they have a far wider roaming area than the Southern Brown Bandicoot.

Updated: 06 Dec 2011