Appearance
They have large ears, a silky light grey and white coat, and a long, black and white crested tail. Bilbies have a long pointed snout and a well-developed
sense of smell to help them find food.
The famous large ears of the bilby are hairless and help them listen for predators and their strong front paws
help them dig their burrows and find food.
Like all marsupials, the female bilbies have a pouch in which they carry their babies. Bilbies normally have one or two young at a time, although their
pouches have eight nipples and is backward opening for an easy escape. Bilbies breed throughout the year as long as food is plentiful.
The best places to see a bilby for yourself are at various Queensland wildlife parks or your local zoo.
Habitat
Bilbies live in underground burrows that spiral to about three metres long and two metres deep and they come out under cover of darkness to find
food. The burrow protects them from the scorching outback sun and predators.
The bilby’s predators include goannas, cats, foxes, dingoes, snakes, large birds and large night birds of prey.
You will find bilbies in isolated arid and semi-arid areas in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland. The Queensland bilby
population is scattered across a 100,000km2 area between Birdsville and Boulia.
Food
After dark, the bilby leaves the protection of the burrow to eat plant seeds, fruits, honey ants, grubs, bulbs, termites, insects, fungi and spiders.
Like the Australian koala, bilbies get most of their water from the food they eat.
Because biblies sift through dirt to find seeds, fruits and bulbs to eat, they digest a lot of soil. In fact, 20-90% of their waste is made up of dirt!
Endangered
Because of competition for food and habitat degradation, bilby numbers have declined severely since the early 1900’s because of competition for food with rabbits and livestock, predation from feral animals and changing habitat such as fires and grazing.
The bilby populations are now isolated and scattered which means they are susceptible to ecological changes and are vulnerable to natural disasters such as disease and fire.
The bilby was once found in 70% of mainland Australia, living in most areas west of the Great Dividing Range. Now bilbies are extinct in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The bilbies in Queensland are now the most threatened and genetically distinct population in Australia,
with only 600-700 specimens left in the wild. The bilby is considered 'vulnerable' nationally and 'endangered' in Queensland.