Lesser bilby
Lesser bilby | |
---|---|
A stuffed lesser bilby specimen at Tring Museum | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
Order: | Peramelemorphia |
Family: | Thylacomyidae |
Genus: | Macrotis |
Species: | †M. leucura
|
Binomial name | |
†Macrotis leucura | |
historic range |
The lesser bilby (Macrotis leucura), also known as the yallara, the lesser rabbit-eared bandicoot or the white-tailed rabbit-eared bandicoot, was a rabbit-like
Taxonomy
A description of the species by
Several later descriptions are synonymous with this species,
The names for the species include white-tailed bilby.[7]
Description
The lesser bilby was a medium-sized marsupial with a body mass of 300–435 grams, a combined head-body length of 200–270 millimetres and tail from 120 to 170 mm.[7][8] Its fur colour ranged from pale yellowish-brown to grey-brown with pale white or yellowish-white fur on its belly, with white limbs and tail.[8][9] The tail of this animal was long, about 70% of its total head-body length.
Macrotis have long fur with a silky texture, the species have long tails and mobile ears that resemble those of a common rabbit (
An illustration reconstructing the animal in its native setting was painted by Peter Schouten.
Distribution and habitat
Very little is known about its former range and distribution, as the species was collected only six times in modern history, with the first of these coming from an unknown region.[10]
In modern times this species was
It preferred to live in sandy and loamy deserts, spinifex sandplains and
Ecology and behaviour
The lesser bilby, like its surviving relatives, was a strictly nocturnal animal. It was an
but it also hunted and fed on introduced rodents.It burrowed in dunes, constructing burrows two to three metres (7–10 ft) deep and closing the entrance with loose sand by day. It is suggested that it may have bred non-seasonally[12] and that giving birth to twins was normal for this species.[11]
Unlike its living relative the greater bilby, the lesser bilby was described as aggressive and tenacious. Hedley Finlayson wrote that this animal was "fierce and intractable, and repulsed the most tactful attempts to handle them by repeated savage snapping bites and harsh hissing sounds".
A collector in the northern territory reported the name used by his Aboriginal informants, Urpila, that distinguished this species from M. lagotis (Urgata), and noted their particular habits. This species would not reside in the deep and narrow part of its burrow in cooler seasons, remaining a short distance from the entrance; this habit was exploited by hunters who would collapse the tunnel behind their prey to force it toward the soft sand covering the opening of the burrow.[4]
Extinction
Since its discovery in 1887, the species was rarely seen or collected and remained relatively unknown to science. In 1931, Finlayson encountered many of them near Cooncherie Station, collecting 12 live specimens.[13] Although according to Finlayson this animal was abundant in that area,[11] these were the last lesser bilbies to be collected alive.
A single specimen collected to the north of
The last specimen ever found was a skull picked up below a wedge-tailed eagle's nest in 1967 at Steele Gap in the Simpson Desert, Northern Territory.[13] The bones were estimated as being under 15 years old.[14]
Indigenous Australian oral tradition suggests that this species possibly survived into the 1960s.[1]
The decline in numbers of the lesser bilby and ultimately its extinction was attributed to several different factors. The introductions of foreign predators like the
References
- ^ . Retrieved 13 November 2021.
- ^ .
- ^ [1][dead link]
- ^ a b c Spencer, B. (1897). "Description of two new species of marsupials from Central Australia". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria. 9: 5–11.
- ^ Finlayson, H.H. (1932). "Preliminary descriptions of two new Mammals from South Australia [Thalacomys, Pseudomys]". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 56: 168–171.
- ^ Finlayson, H.H. (1935). "On mammals from the Lake Eyre Basin. Part II - The Peramelidae". Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. 59: 227–236.
- ^ ISBN 9780195573954.
- ^ a b c d e "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Francis Harper (1945). Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World. New York, American Committee for International Wild Life Protection.
- ^ ISBN 978-2-88032-600-5.
- ^ a b c Hedley Herbert Finlayson (1935). On mammals from the Lake Eyre Basin. Part 2. The Peramelidae.
- ^ "Lesser Bilby". www.rainforestinfo.org.au.
- ^ a b "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2011-05-14.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ISBN 9780871137975.