Southern brown bandicoot

Appearance

The fur of this bandicoot is coarse and coloured a dark greyish to yellowish brown, with the undersides a creamy-white. It has short, round ears.

The southern brown bandicoot shows some sexual dimorphism, with females being slightly smaller than males. The average male length is 330 mm , with a tail of 120 mm . Females are about 30 mm shorter than the male, with a 10 mm shorter tail. Males weigh an average of 0.9 kg , females 0.7 kg .

Status

While some authorities list as many as five subspecies , the most recent edition of "Mammal Species of the World" only lists ''I. o. nauticus'' as a valid subspecies, aside from the nominate; the others are given synonym status.

In many areas of its range the species is threatened, but it may be locally common where rainfall is high enough and vegetation cover is thick enough. Despite depredations from the introduced European red fox, in some regions it thrives, being reported anecdotally to be living on properties adjoining shopping and population centres such as Stirling in the Adelaide Hills.. It has been reintroduced to some lower rainfall areas where there is protection against cat and fox predation - one such site being Wadderin Sanctuary in the eastern wheatbelt of Western Australia, 300 km east of Perth.

Evolution

Reproduction is closely linked to local rainfall pattern, and many brown bandicoots breed all year around. A litter of up to five young is born after an eleven-day gestation period, and is weaned at two months.