Do you know how to tell if you have bandicoots in your backyard?

Have you ever seen a digging that looks like this? Well, you might have just come across a Southern Brown Bandicoot! We are in the midst of a digging bonanza as we endeavor to re-survey 360+ sites for the presence of bandicoots in bushland areas throughout the lower Limestone Coast.

Responsible Wood and OneFortyOne are supporting us to run a project on this species to update our knowledge and involve the community. This exercise was last undertaken 10 years ago, so we aim to summarise the results in a report to inform local land managers about the population and to determine if any sites are in trouble.

This survey has been completed 3 times previously, and its been approximately a 10 year gap between each survey. Burrandies Aboriginal Corporation and NGT are putting our resources together to search and count diggings which can be allocated to one of three categories – fresh, recent or old at each site (see photos above). The key components to accurately identifying a bandicoot digging from that of a rabbit or echidna are: a round entrance to the hole, a conical shape to the entire hole (like an ice-cream cone – round at the top and pointy at the bottom), and that the digging goes vertically down into the ground – not on a slant. Another clue is that with bandicoot digging the spoil heap in always on one-side only, not sprayed left and right like an echidna does.

We need some volunteers to assist us in bandicoot surveys in the upcoming months. We’ve just had our first training day on Thursday May 28th at Mt Burr Swamp in Mount McIntyre, SA. This training day showed participants what real bandicoot diggings look like, and we talked over the ecology and habitat requirements of the Southern Brown Bandicoot.

If you’re interested in becoming involved in future surveys and workshops in the region, please contact Toni Haywood (email: ) or Vanessa Freebairn at the Limestone Coast Landscape Board (email: ).

This project is supported by Burrandies Aboriginal Corporation, Responsible Wood and OneFortyOne.
In partnership with the Limestone Coast Landscape Board.