One of the rare Australian animals and Western Australia’s faunal
emblem, numbat, also called the marsupial anteater,
is the only living member of the Myrmecobiidae family.
Although it was
once found in South Australia and New South Wales, numbat
habitat is now restricted to the south-western WA, where
lives in the famous Jarrah and Wandoo forests.
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Numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus)
is a small, 270mm long animal that weighs up to 700g, has a narrow
head, brushy tail, and stripes on the body that camouflage it in its
open forest habitat.
By flickkerphotos via Flickr.com Numbat is one of the very few Australian animals
that lives exclusively on termites (another one is echidna)
that it catches with its 100-mm long tongue. It eats 20,000 termites a
day and it forages during the day, when it can be seen on the forest
ground or climbing in trees after termites.
Numbat is a solitary and territorial animal. Its territory can be up to
50 hectares large and it has got several nests in burrows and tree logs
within its territory.
By Nick_Lawes via Flickr.com
Its mating season is in January and young are born in late January
or early February. The female has got four nipples but no pouch so the
young are hanging off her teats for six months until they are
independent to be left in a nursery burrow. In September the young
start exploring outside world, and by November they leave to find their
By flyingblogspot via Flickr.com
Its species status is
vulnerable – less than 2000 individuals are believed to be left in the
wild. Land clearing and red foxes are their biggest threat. They have
been reintroduced to national parks and nature reserves where control
programs reduce introduced predators. Good places to see numbat are
Dyandra State Forest, Dragon Rocks Nature Reserve, Perup Forest and the
Boyagin Nature Reserve, all in Western
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