Here are some facts about the Greater Bilby, and reasons why the rangers are working so hard to protect it. Move aside Easter Bunny, let’s make way for the Bilby!
1. They used to be (almost) everywhere!
Most people aren’t lucky enough to have come face to face with a Greater Bilby. They’re extremely rare, nocturnal, and shy. As with many other native mammals, their range has dramatically shrunk since European settlement.
The Bilby once lived on 70% of the continent. Now, they inhabit parts of Tanami Desert of the Northern Territory, the Great Sandy Desert, parts of the Pilbara and Kimberley (near Broome) regions of Western Australia, the clay and stony soils of the Mitchell grasslands of southwest Queensland, and where the Birriliburu IPA is, the Little Sandy and Gibson Deserts.
2. The Lesser Bilby is extinct
We refer to the Greater Bilby simply as ‘the Bilby’, but it once had a relative, the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura). Due to large-scale land clearing and predation from invasive cats and foxes, it is believed to have been extinct since the 50s. Specimens were formally recorded just six times, so little is known about the species.