The numbat is a small carnivorous marsupial between 35 and 45 centimetres long, including the tail. It can vary in colour from grey to a reddish-brown. Usually there is a patch of red on the back. Numbats also have between four and eleven white stripes across their hind-quarters, these becoming lighter towards the mid-section. They also have a black stripe running from their nose through the eye to the base of each ear.
The numbat has a long sticky tongue which it uses to collect its only food: termites. It does not have strong enough claws to dig into a termite mound but must collect up the termites as they go to feed or in the shallow tunnels which led to their food supply. An adult numbat requires about 20,000 termites a day. The numbat is diurnal, that is it is active during the day, unlike most marsupials which feed at night.
The numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus) is also known as the banded anteater or walpurti. It once used to range across most of southern Australia but is now limited to two small pockets in Western Australia and two feral controlled area, the Yookamurra Sanctuary in South Australia and the Scotia Sanctuary in NSW. It is classified as endangered. Perth Zoo has been conducting a breeding program which has re-introduced about 150 numbats back into the wild. The numbat is the emblem of Western Australia.
Numbats are solitary creatures and they establish a home territory of about 1.5 square kilometres. They feed during the day and rest in a burrow or hollow log or tree during the night. Numbats breed during February and March, having one litter a year of four young. Numbats do not have a pouch. Numbat predators are pythons, foxes, cats and birds of prey.
The photographs on this page are actual camera trap photographs of the animals we just released. Some of the nubats have collars and some don't. Photos kindly provided by AWC and Scotia sanctuary.
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