The bilbies, also known as the greater bilbies or rabbit-eared bandicoots, are small, nocturnal marsupials found only in Australia. The bilby has one of the shortest gestation periods among mammals lasting from 12 to 14 days. With fewer than 10,000 left in the wild, bilbies are rated as vulnerable on the IUCN List.
Since the 1800s, habitat loss from land-use conversion and increased predation and competition stemming from species invasions have caused bilby populations to decline. (These forces also caused the extinction of the only other known species in the genus Macrotis—M. leucura, a smaller form commonly called the lesser bilby—sometime between 1931 and 1960.) Between 1982 and 1994 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the bilby as an endangered species on its Red List of Threatened Species. Since 1994, however, the IUCN has upgraded the animal’s status to vulnerable. Although reintroduction programs designed to create sustainable bilby populations in other parts of Australia have been established in New South Wales and Southern Australia, as well as several parts of Western Australia and Queensland, possibly fewer than 10,000 bilbies remain in the wild.
The bilby and the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), an invasive species that has become an agricultural pest in Australia, are known to compete with one another for food. In 1991 members of the organization Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia Inc. started a campaign to replace the “Easter bunny” in Australia with the “Easter bilby” to raise public awareness of bilby conservation while also educating the Australian public about the ecological damage caused by introduced rabbits.
Credit : Britannica
Picture Credit : Google
