| Desert bandicoot | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Taxidermied specimen | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Infraclass: | Marsupialia |
| Order: | Peramelemorphia |
| Family: | Peramelidae |
| Genus: | Perameles |
| Species: | †P. eremiana |
| Binomial name | |
| †Perameles eremiana Spencer, 1897 | |
The desert bandicoot (Perameles eremiana) is an extinct bandicoot of the arid country in the centre of Australia. [2]
The description by Walter Baldwin Spencer was published in 1897, using a specimen provided by a European correspondent, Mr. Gillen, who had settled at Alice Springs. The holotype was placed at the National Museum in Melbourne. [3] The type location was determined as the Burt Plain, an area north of Alice in South Australia. [4] [5]
The status as species is uncertain: it was proposed by L. Freedman in 1967 to represent a clinal form of a P. bougainville population, [6] yet recognised in a revision of Perameles phylogeny in 2012. [7] Names of the species by indigenous peoples of the central desert were reported by Spencer as mulgaruquirra at Alice Springs and iwurra at Charlotte Waters. [3] Common names for the species also include orange-backed bandicoot and waliya, [4] [8] the latter adopted from a traditional name at the Warburton region. [9]
A species of Perameles which, like the Isoodon of the bandicoot family Peramelidae, are terrestrial and somewhat quadrupedal foragers that use short forelimbs to excavate the ground. The hind limbs resemble the macropods, roos and wallabies, and the syndactyly that is typical of diprotodonts, the combined second and third toes of the hindfeet. The body is small and head that is proportionally long, narrow and pointed to suit its use in investigating the sand while digging. Like other peramelids, the pelage of Perameles eremiana is composed of coarse and stiff hair, the coloration of this species is a dull orange with darker bands over the rump. They most closely resemble the western barred bandicoot Perameles bougainville , most readily distinguished by a rufous-orange coloration at the flanks, face and rump. dark brown fur covered most of the upper and lower parts of the feet at the front and hind limbs. [9] The tails of Perameles are comparatively short, but in this species it was relatively longer, measuring 77–135 millimetres, and fur at the upper-side was dark brown; the end of the tail tapers to a point. [9] [10]
The range of measurements for specimens of P. eremiana are 180 to 285 mm for head and body length combined, and their weight is estimated to be around 205 grams. [10] Like other peramelids, the females have a rear facing pouch and possessed eight teats, the number of young may also have been as many as four although the only reports are of a female bearing two young. The distinctive characters of P. eremiana, the coloration, hair on the lower surface of the foot and longer pointed ears are thought to be adaptations suited to its arid environment of central Australian deserts. [9] Its diet is not known with certainty, but has been reported to include ants, beetle larvae, and termites. [1]
The last known specimen was collected in 1943 on the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia, [1] and the species is presumed to be extinct. [10] Their first specimens, from the Alice Springs area, were described in 1897. It appears to have been common in the remote north-west of South Australia, the south-west of the Northern Territory, and the central part of Western Australia at least until the 1930s. Unconfirmed reports suggest that its range may have extended to the Tanami Desert and the arid Western Australian coast between Broome and Port Hedland.
Favoured habitat was sandy desert dominated by spinifex vegetation, Triodia species and other tussock grasses, on dunes or sand-plains. [10] It appears to have disappeared between about 1943 and 1960. While the cause of its decline remains uncertain, it is thought to be related to the changed burning regimes that followed the removal of Aboriginal people from the central Australian deserts. Another factor may have been the introduction of the red fox in Australia. [1] The species succumbed to the variety of threatening factors associated with the collapse of mammal populations in Western Australia (1875–1925). A study that modelled its decline when attributed to an epizootic event, an unknown disease that was reported at the time, found that Perameles eremiana would have had no immunity to its impact. [11]
The detailed habits of the species are unknown, but assumed to be similar to the extant western barred bandicoot. [10] They were found in areas also inhabited by the golden bandicoot Isoodon auratus . [1]
A simple burrow was lined with sticks and leaves, scraped or dug at the ground beneath a shrub or spinifex tussock, and this provided refuge while it rested during the day. Foraging activity was nocturnal, and like other bandicoots, left a conical hole as it dug and investigated an area with its claws and long snout. This bandicoot was eaten by indigenous peoples, who captured the animal by blocking the entrance of its nest with one foot and removing the trapped animal by hand. [9]
The greater bilby, often referred to simply as the bilby since the lesser bilby became extinct in the 1950s, is an Australian species of nocturnal omnivorous animal in the order Peramelemorphia. Other vernacular names include dalgyte, pinkie, or rabbit-eared bandicoot. Greater bilbies live in arid parts of northwestern and central Australia. Their range and population is in decline.
The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies; it equates approximately to the mainstream of marsupial omnivores. All members of the order are endemic to the twin land masses of Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very large upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. Their size varies from about 140 grams up to 4 kilograms, but most species are about one kilogram, or the weight of a half-grown kitten.
The eastern barred bandicoot is a nocturnal, rabbit-sized marsupial endemic to southeastern Australia, being native to the island of Tasmania and mainland Victoria. It is one of three surviving bandicoot species in the genus Perameles. It is distinguishable from its partially-sympatric congener – the long-nosed bandicoot – via three or four dark horizontal bars found on its rump. In Tasmania, it is relatively abundant. The mainland population in Victoria is struggling and is subject to ongoing conservation endeavors.
The crescent nail-tail wallaby, also known as the worong, was a small species of marsupial that grazed on grasses in the scrub and woodlands of southwestern and central Australia. They were common in Western Australia before they disappeared in the early 20th century and persisted in the central deserts until at least the 1950s. The pelage was soft and silky and an ashen grey colouring overall, highlighted in part with rufous tones. There were light and dark patches of fur across the body, the moon-like crescents inspiring their names, and had attractive stripes on the face. Like the two remaining species of the genus, the northern Onychogalea unguifera and rare O. fraenata, it had a horny spur at the tip of its tail. The species was compared to a hare or rabbit, in its habits, appearance and taste, and weighed around 3.5 kilograms.
The lesser bilby, also known as the yallara, the lesser rabbit-eared bandicoot or the white-tailed rabbit-eared bandicoot, was a rabbit-like marsupial. The species was first described by Oldfield Thomas as Peregale leucura in 1887 from a single specimen from a collection of mammals of the British Museum. Reaching the size of a young rabbit, this species lived in the deserts of Central Australia. Since the 1950s–1960s, it has been believed to be extinct.
Chaeropus, known as the pig-footed bandicoots, is a genus of small mammals that became extinct during the twentieth century. They were unique marsupials, of the order Peramelemorphia, with unusually thin legs yet were able to move rapidly. Two recognised species inhabited dense vegetation on the arid and semi-arid plains of Australia. The genus' distribution range was later reduced to an inland desert region, where it was last recorded in the 1950s; it is now presumed extinct.
Perameles is a genus of marsupials of the order Peramelemorphia. They are referred to as long-nosed bandicoots or barred bandicoots.
The short-nosed bandicoots are members of the order Peramelemorphia. These marsupials can be found across Australia, although their distribution can be patchy. Genetic evidence suggests that short-nosed bandicoots diverged from the related long-nosed species around eight million years ago, during the Miocene epoch, and underwent a rapid diversification around three million years ago, during the late Pliocene.
The marsupial family Peramelidae contains all of the extant bandicoots. They are found throughout Australia and New Guinea, with at least some species living in every available habitat, from rainforest to desert. Four fossil peramelids are described. One known extinct species of bandicoot, the pig-footed bandicoot, was so different from the other species, it was recently moved into its own family.
The golden bandicoot is a short-nosed bandicoot found in northern Australia. It is the smallest of its genus.
The Western barred bandicoot, also known as the Marl, is a small species of bandicoot; now extinct across most of its former range, the western barred bandicoot only survives on offshore islands and in fenced sanctuaries on the mainland.
The long-nosed bandicoot, a marsupial, is a species of bandicoot found in eastern Australia, from north Queensland along the east coast to Victoria. Around 40 centimetres (16 in) long, it is sandy- or grey-brown with a long snouty nose. Omnivorous, it forages for invertebrates, fungi and plants at night.
The heath mouse is a species of mouse in the subfamily Murinae, the Old World rats and mice, found in Australia.
The sandy inland mouse is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. Also known as the Hermannsburg (Mission) false-mouse or Hermannsburg mouse, it is endemic to Australia and found widely yet sparsely through arid and semi-arid areas.
Crash bandicoot is an extinct bandicoot, known from fossils located at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northeast Australia.
Perameles papillon, the Nullarbor barred bandicoot, is an extinct species of bandicoot that was native to the arid Nullarbor Plain in southern Australia. It is also called the butterfly bandicoot for the dark brown patch on its rump, which resembles a butterfly. It was described in 2018 based on existing skins and osteological material within museum collections in Australia. It is believed to have become extinct sometime during the mid-twentieth century due to predation by non-native foxes introduced during the time of European settlement.
