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BohoBio Bio
Hello, my name is Ninu, and this is my BohoBio Bio
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Name : Ninu the Bilby
Scientific Name : Macrotis lagotis Other Name : greater bilby, rabbit -eared bandicoot Home : Currawinya National Park, Queensland, Australia Favorite Food : termites and other bugs, worms, spiders, fruits and bulbs Personality : shy, keep to myself, creature of the night Best Features : long, pink ears, strong claws, rear-opening pouch to keep joeys clean Biggest Concerns : avoiding foxes, feral cats, snakes, surviving humans turning our homes into cow and sheep pastures Shout out : Save the Bilby Fund Video : |
WHERE I’M FROM
I am from Australia, and until about 70 years ago there were 2 species of bilby living here. But in the 1950’s my cousin the lesser bilby went extinct and now we are the last remaining species of bilbies. We love all the dry shrubland found in the outback here. I enjoy the cool starry nights in the outback and go out at night to find food. Days here tend to be very hot, so I dig long, spiral-shaped burrows that can be up to 3 meters long and 2 meters deep. It stays comfy cool underground, and I spend most of my days in my burrows.
TRAITS & ABILITIES
I have lovely bluish-grey fur over most of my body, but my ears have shades of pink and my tail has a black band and a white tip. I am small, similar to a rabbit in size, and my beautiful ears are also rabbit-like and serve me great for finding food and avoiding predators. I have strong claws on my feet which I use to dig for food or to dig my burrows. My eyesight is not great, but my sense of smell is and I use it to help me find my food.
FAMILY LIFE
We bilbies like our alone time, but we do get together when we want to start a family. After breeding, a female bilby is pregnant for only 2 weeks, which is one of the shortest pregnancies of any mammal. Baby bilbies are called joeys and after they are born, they crawl up into their mom’s pouch where they then feed on bilby milk for about 11 weeks. I have a rear-facing pouch which helps keep dirt out of it while I am digging. Bilby moms usually give birth to 2 or 3 joeys at a time. If conditions are good, a bilby mom can have 4 litters of joeys per year. Bilby fathers live alone most all the time and don’t help out with raising the joeys.
FEEDING TIME
Nighttime is feeding time for me. I sometimes dig a burrow close to a termite mound so I don’t have to travel far to feed. I use my long flexible nose and strong claws to get to my food, and then use my sticky tongue to capture my prey. Along with various bugs and spiders, I also like eating my veggies, particularly small seeds, and the underground bulbs of plants.
THREATS
Australia has some native animals that try to eat me like eagles, pythons and monitor lizards. But our lives got much more difficult after Europeans brough foxes, cats, rabbits, cows, and sheep to Australia. Foxes and feral cats are very fast and find us to be easy prey for them. Rabbits don’t hunt us, but they do eat the same food that we do and can take over our burrows. Cows and sheep are huge and hungry animals that trample on our burrows and eat our favored seeds. It was because of all these new animals that your cousins the lesser bilbies went extinct.
PRESENT & FUTURE
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Life has been difficult for us with all our newly introduced neighbors hunting us and competing for our food and land. We are considered vulnerable to extinction and there may be fewer that 10,000 bilbies left in the wild. While some humans were responsible for making our lives difficult, others are working hard to keep us from becoming extinct.
We really appreciate efforts such as the “Easter Bilby” campaign where bilby-shaped chocolates are sold to raise money for our protection. Also, BohoBio will soon be launching and effort to replace the expression “went down a rabbit hole” with “went down a bilby burrow.” This seems right since our burrows are longer and more curvy than the typical rabbit hole. We are also being helped by kind people such as those at “Save the Bilby Fund” who are helping to maintain a predator-free space for me and my friends to survive. So long as the effort of people trying to protect us and our home are greater than the efforts of people trying to destroy our home, we will have a future presence on our planet. |
