Numbat

The numbat, known scientifically as *Myrmecobius fasciatus*, is a unique insectivorous marsupial from Australia.

An insectivore is an animal that eats insects. While most small marsupials are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night, the numbat is diurnal. This means it is active during the daylight hours. It is the faunal emblem of Western Australia. Currently, the species is considered endangered. This is because their population has declined significantly over time.

Conservation programs are working hard to protect them and help their numbers grow again.

Numbats have a highly specialized way of feeding on termites. An adult numbat can consume up to 20,000 termites in a single day.

Because they lack the heavy claws of animals like aardvarks, they cannot break into hard termite mounds. Instead, they use a keen sense of smell to find shallow, underground galleries. Once they locate these paths, they use their front claws to dig in the loose soil. To catch the insects, they use a long, narrow tongue covered in sticky saliva. This saliva is produced by large submandibular glands. Inside their mouth, numerous ridges on the soft palate help scrape the termites off the tongue so they can be swallowed.

Physical characteristics of the numbat are very distinct. They weigh between 250 and 450 grams. Their bodies feature a black stripe that runs from the tip of the muzzle, through the eye, to the base of the ear.

They also have between four and eleven white stripes across their hindquarters. Their fur color can range from soft grey to a reddish-brown. They possess a prominent, bushy tail that is roughly the same length as their body. On their feet, they have five toes on the forefeet and four on the hind feet. They also have a sternal scent gland, which they may use to mark their territories.

Taxonomically, the numbat is quite unusual. The genus *Myrmecobius* is the only member of the family Myrmecobiidae.

This family belongs to the order Dasyuromorphia, which includes many other carnivorous marsupials. However, the numbat is not closely related to the other species in that order. Genetic studies indicate that the ancestors of the numbat diverged from other marsupials between 32 and 42 million years ago. This occurred during the late Eocene epoch. While two subspecies were once described, the reddish-colored *Myrmecobius fasciatus rufus* has been extinct since at least the 1960s. Only the nominate subspecies, *M. fasciatus fasciatus*, remains in existence today.

History shows how much the numbat's range has changed. Numbats were once widely distributed across southern Australia. Their range once stretched from Western Australia to north-western New South Wales.

Since the arrival of Europeans, their habitat has shrunk significantly. Today, they are naturally found only in small patches of eucalypt forest in Western Australia. There are estimated to be fewer than 1,000 numbats left in the wild. To help them, scientists have reintroduced them to fenced, predator-proof reserves. These include the Yookamurra Sanctuary in South Australia and the Mount Gibson Sanctuary in Western Australia. These efforts aim to protect them from invasive predators like red foxes and feral cats.

Numbats follow specific daily patterns to survive in their environment. They synchronize their activity with the movement of termites, which is temperature-dependent. In the winter, they feed from midmorning to midafternoon. In the summer, they rise earlier to feed, then take shelter during the midday heat.

They can also enter a state of torpor, which is a period of decreased activity, for up to fifteen hours a day during winter. At night, they sleep in nests found in tree hollows or burrows. They can even use the thick skin of their rump to block the entrance of a burrow to stay safe from predators.

Reproduction for the numbat is also quite different from other marsupials. Females do not have a pouch. Instead, the four teats are protected by a patch of golden hair and a swelling of the abdomen and thighs.

Numbats typically breed in February and March, producing one litter of four young per year. The gestation period, or the time the young spend developing inside the mother, lasts 15 days. The young are born long and must crawl to the teats immediately. They remain attached to the mother until they are much larger, around July or August. By November, the young are fully independent and ready to survive on their own.