Macrotis lagotis

The bilby or bandicoot large rabbit or bandicoot rabbit ( Macrotis lagotis ) is a Espèce of Marsupial of the Désert. It owes its name with an indigenous language: the " Yuwaalaraay" and " means; rat with length nez".

Description

It is largest of the Bandicoot S. It with the size of a cat or a rabbit. The length of the body is of 55 cm, that of the tail of 29 cm with a weight from 1 to 2.4 kg on average for the male; the female is less heavy (0.8 to 1,1 kg). Its fur of a gray-blue has spots clearly brown and is very soft. The tail is white and black. It has a pointed muzzle, large ears deprived of hairs, a fine hearing, a piercing sense of smell but a low sight. Its legs fronts, very powerful, provided with claws are used for to him unearthing its food or digging its burrow.

Distribution and place of life

One finds it in the zones semi-desert (meadows or savannas of Acacia S of the Territoire of North and the Australia Occidentale like in the South-west of the Queensland.

Food

It nourishes plants (fruis, bulbs or seeds) and of Insecte S or Araignée S. Accessoirement of mouse, birds or lizards.

Lifestyle

It is a night, solitary animal or couples some, which spends its days in one of the many and deep (nearly 2 m) burrows dug in spiral in the sand of the desert. Its burrows have often only one entry hidden in a bush or close to a termitière. It leaves only the evening to feed.

Reproduction

Marsupial with an opening of pocket towards the back for this digger animal, the female generally has a range from two to three small to the maximum. The gestation period is 21 days and the small ones remain 75 days (70 to 80) in the marsupium. They separate from the mother around 6 months

To become

Driven out for their fur, poisoned, trapped with rabbits, driven out by the foxes and the wildcats, they are in the process of disappearance. They disappeared from all southernmost Australia and are in the process of reintroduction.

Bilby of Easter

To save Bilby and to fight against the proliferation of rabbits the Australian ones have tried to change for a few years the legend of Easter to sensitize the children: the Lapin of Easter from now on is replaced by the bilby of Easter.

Random links: