Numbat

Apperance

The Numbat is a animal and has a reddish brown coat banded with white stripes and a paler underbelly. Numbats have a pointed snout, short ears and black stripes which run from mid snout to the base of their ear which passes through the eye, on a delicate tapering head, The Numbat has a prominent bushy tail, which is often carried erect with the hair fluffed out like a bottle brush. Numbats legs are rather small and delicate, and the claws of its feet are not very large The Numbat has a long tongue for eating termites that can stretch out to half the length of its body. It has 52 teeth that are all different to each other in size and shape.

Weight

Lenght
The Numbat is small 35-45 cm.

Eating and diet habits
Numbats use their long snouts to "snuffle" the ground in search of food, and then they use their front feet to dig for the termites in the soil and extract them with their long, sticky tongue. A numbat eats 10,000 + termites each day.

Breeding habits
Sexual maturity is reached at about 11 months to a year in Numbats. Mating occurs from December to February and 4 young are usually produced a year. Numbats do not have a pouch, for nurturing their young so the young, born blind and hairless, must simply cling to the belly fur of their mother while feeding from their mothers 4 teats for 6 months. After six months, the young numbats are left in a burrow when the mother goes out to feed. From 6 to 10 months the numbat will carry them clinging to her back.

Predators and dangers
The numbat is under risk from many predators like feral cats and dogs, Sparrow Hawks, Eagles and Carpet Pythons.

Enviroment
Numbats like to stay in area's of open woodlands that are dominated by Wandoo which is a Eucalyptus that termites like to feed on. They need hollow fallen logs to shelter in at night and for nesting and protection against predators.

Remaining Locations
The numbat survives only in a small area in the wild only in area of Wandoo woodland which is a type of Eucalyptus woodland and they also survive in Jarrah forest. They survive in the southwest corner of Western Australia near Narrogin which is 170km south east of Perth.

numbats remaining location

Numbers

Problems

The introduction of foxes, domestic cats and dogs have seriously threatened the survival of the Numbat.
They have also suffered massive habitat destruction through clearing for farming.
The rate of destruction increased dramatically in the 1960's in the wheatbelt.
The remaining small, isolated pockets of uncleared land left the numbat very vulnerable to predation by foxes.
It was also during the 1960's that the Government encouraged Aborigines to leave the nomadic way of life and traditional homelands and settle on missions. Without the patchwork burning of small fires , vegetation built up, and eventually, when fires broke out they were fierce and massive, destroying both the shelter and food source of the Numbat.

Solutions

The Department of Conservation and Land Management has undertaken extensive and detailed research into the Numbat in the wild, and into establishing a captive breeding program with Perth Zoo.
Control feral predators, to ensure successful reintroductions of Numbats into the wild.
ongoing habitat management.
support your local environment groups.
genetic assessment of all populations.
ongoing monitoring and biological studies.
translocation to other sites.
encourage the community-based collection of more information about the species and its habitat.
protect remnant native vegetation under Heritage Agreement and by excluding stock .
revegetate cleared land with indigenous plants.
help in the eradication of foxes, cats and rabbits.
be a responsible pet owner so they do not impact on Numbat or other wildlife.
raise money for the rehabilitation of sites for Numbat.
learn more about endangered animals, particularly those native to your area.
encourage habitat retention and restoration.
inform the public about threatened species issues.
Secure the habitat from further destruction.
The project was funded by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Australia.