NUMBATS

So what is a numbat?

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.

THE NUMBATS ARRIVE

The numbats arrive by light plane.

Their collars are checked.

The numbats were due to arrive from Perth Zoo, via Adelaide this afternoon at about 3 o'clock. There were a few delays but they eventually arrived in a small plane about 5. They were taken to the hanger and their collars checked to see if they were working and two new collars put on. Then they were loaded into three vehicles and taken to the bush for release. The numbats were not just let go to fend for themselves. Over the past few days sites had been prepared for each numbat. Areas were selected so that each animal had a big enough range so they would not be overcrowded and competing for food. At each site logs were prepared to put the animals in and water dishes were placed near the logs. Each log was also covered by a camera trap to record the animals coming out of the log and to see if they continued to use the log as a home base. The collars were so that we could come back and check they were still alive and still in the area without disturbing the individual animals. The collars also allow the numbats to be located easily when the collars need adjusting. Sharon, a volunteer from Manildra, and I will be working with Jennifer over the next week and a half to monitor the numbats' movements. After that a new team will take over and the numbats will be monitored for a couple of months.

A numbat being released.

A numbat collar.

There are nearly 300 numbats already here at Scotia. Today's release is of another seventeen. Eleven of these have been collared. The numbats are being released into stage two. This is a fenced feral-free area, that is it does not have foxes, cats or dingos. There are a number of birds of prey in the area and these will take numbats; there are also goannas, which are opportune and may take a numbat given a chance. The vegetation is mainly mallee with a few areas of spinifex. There are a number of watering points. There are also some numbats already in the area (maybe 10 to 30), there are a few bilbies and a few kangaroos. Stage 2 is just under 4,000 hectares in area.

Being placed into a log.

The collars are made as small as possible and ideally, as with all animals they are less then 5% of the animal's body weight. This also means compromises in the case of small animals. Usually it means the battery has to be smaller or the range of the signal from the collar is less. These collars weigh 7 gms, the battery lasts about 13 months and they have a  nominal range of 250 to 300 metres, though this is very much affected by the topography of the area and climatic conditions.

Sadly, Nicholas, the young numbat we had been monitoring before this release, was found dead today. His collar was giving out a 'mortality signal', it does this when the collar has not moved for 10 hours. The collar was tracked and his body found. An early post-mortem seems to indicate he may have been attacked by a small bird of prey as the body had tear marks on it.

Note: two different collars have been used with the numbats. They vary slightly and only one type have the 'mortality signal'.