Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

The south­ern brown bandi­coot (Isoodon obe­su­lus) is found spo­rad­i­cally through­out the south­ern­most coastal re­gions of Aus­tralia. Specif­i­cally, it is lo­cated in the south­ern tip of West­ern Aus­tralia, the en­tire coastal re­gion of Vic­to­ria ex­tend­ing into New South Wales, as well as a small sec­tion of the north­ern­most cusp of Queens­land along the coast­line. The south­ern brown bandi­coot has also been ob­served through­out the is­land of Tas­ma­nia. ("Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015; "Isoodon obe­su­lus ssp. obe­su­lus", 2008; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012; "South­ern brown bandi­coot (Isoodon obe­su­lus) Re­cov­ery Plan", 2006)

• Biogeographic Regions
• australian
  • native

Habi­tat

The south­ern brown bandi­coot is pri­mar­ily found in re­gions along the ocean, but its habi­tat is dy­namic. Var­i­ous mi­cro­bio­mes make up the habi­tat of the south­ern brown bandi­coot through­out Aus­tralia and Tas­ma­nia. It is com­monly found in areas of ex­pan­sive, dense, swamp-like veg­e­ta­tion and brush (about 0.2-1m tall) near bod­ies of water such as a lake, stream, or ocean. Also, it can in­habit more in­land areas such as forests or scrub­land with dense ground veg­e­ta­tion. The dif­fer­ent veg­e­ta­tion cre­ates a cer­tain level of pro­tec­tion and ample cov­er­age which pro­vides a nat­ural cam­ou­flage from var­i­ous preda­tors. The el­e­va­tion of the area where the south­ern brown bandi­coot in­hab­its varies be­tween is­lands. On the main­land of Aus­tralia, the el­e­va­tion is be­tween 0-300 me­ters, and on the is­land of Tas­ma­nia the el­e­va­tion can vary be­tween 0-600 me­ters. ("Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015; "Isoodon obe­su­lus ssp. obe­su­lus", 2008; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012; "South­ern brown bandi­coot (Isoodon obe­su­lus) Re­cov­ery Plan", 2006; Driessen and Rose, 2015)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• scrub forest

• Wetlands
• swamp

• Other Habitat Features
• riparian
• intertidal or littoral

• Range elevation

  0 to 600 m

  0.00 to 1968.50 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

At birth, neonates weigh be­tween 0.2-0.4 grams and are about 1 cm long but they de­velop quickly into adults. Males will con­tin­u­ously grow through­out their life­time and will weigh 500-1850 grams. Fe­males stop grow­ing around 18 to 24 months of age and weigh be­tween 400-1200 grams as adults.

The south­ern brown bandi­coot is a mar­su­pial, with a cu­mu­la­tive head and body length av­er­ag­ing 330 mm in males and 300 mm in fe­males. It has a dis­tinctly long tail, which in males av­er­ages 124 mm, and in fe­males 113 mm, ac­count­ing for 40% of their body size. How­ever, it is com­mon to see an in­di­vid­ual with a no­tice­ably smaller or nonex­is­tent tail. This is a re­sult of fight­ing be­tween male bandi­coots. The south­ern brown bandi­coot has very short, coarse fur that can in­clude a mix­ture of col­ors rang­ing from black and grey to brown and golden yel­low. Also, un­like other re­lated species, this bandi­coot has ex­tremely small ears that are rounded at the top and face out­wards. This species’ snout is much smaller in com­par­i­son to its coun­ter­parts such as the long-nosed bandi­coot (Per­ame­les na­suta). ("Bandi­coots", 2006; Driessen and Rose, 2015; "Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike
• male larger

• Range mass

  400 to 1850 g

  14.10 to 65.20 oz

• Range length

  370 to 500 mm

  14.57 to 19.69 in

• Average basal metabolic rate

  1.238 W

  AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Mat­ing sys­tems of the south­ern brown bandi­coot are not well known. How­ever, there are some key as­pects that are known. This species as a whole is polyg­y­nan­drous, with fe­males ac­quir­ing a new part­ner every time they breed. Breed­ing oc­curs on av­er­age four times every breed­ing cycle which oc­curs from July to De­cem­ber or Feb­ru­ary de­pend­ing on the lo­ca­tion of the bandi­coot. ("Bandi­coots", 2006; Birk­head and Moller, 1998)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

The south­ern brown bandi­coot has a very rapid re­pro­duc­tion rate aided by a long breed­ing sea­son. This sea­son spans the months of July to De­cem­ber in Vic­to­ria, while ex­tend­ing to Feb­ru­ary in Tas­ma­nia. It is not un­com­mon for a fe­male to have two to four lit­ters per sea­son de­pend­ing on how long the sea­son might last that year. Fe­males can carry lit­ters up to six, but it is more fre­quent for lit­ters to range be­tween two and four. Ges­ta­tion pe­riod for this species is about 12 to 16 days per lit­ter, which is then fol­lowed by two months in the mother’s pouch. While in the pouch, they feed on one of the eight teats on the mother’s ab­dom­i­nal re­gion in its pouch. Not all of the teats get used at one time be­cause of the av­er­age lit­ter size and the rapid wean­ing of the lit­ters. This rapid sex­ual cycle al­lows the fe­male to have the ca­pa­bil­ity to be in heat be­fore one lit­ter is weaned, mean­ing it is able to have an­other lit­ter al­most im­me­di­ately after the prior one leaves the pouch. After the young leave the pouch, around 70 to 75 days after birth, they are left to live and fend for them­selves be­cause the soli­tary na­ture of this species. With the re­pro­duc­tion of a new lit­ter being so ac­cel­er­ated, fe­males as well as males can reach re­pro­duc­tive ma­tu­rity within four to six months of being born. ("Bandi­coots", 2006; "Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012; Driessen and Rose, 2015)

• Key Reproductive Features
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• viviparous

• Breeding interval

  Southern brown bandicoots can breed up to four times per season.

• Breeding season

  July-Feburary

• Range number of offspring

  2 to 6

• Average number of offspring

  2.73

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  12 to 16 days

• Average gestation period

  15 days

• Range weaning age

  60 to 70 days

• Range time to independence

  70 to 75 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  4 to 6 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  4 to 6 months

Parental in­vest­ment varies greatly be­tween the male and fe­male south­ern brown bandi­coot. The male does not par­take in the in­vest­ment or care of its young out­side of the act of mat­ing. Fe­male south­ern brown bandi­coots have a greater in­vest­ment in­volv­ing its young. As mar­su­pi­als, fe­males carry their young in a pouch for an av­er­age of 60 days, until the young are weaned off. After wean­ing, the young are con­sid­ered in­de­pen­dent. ("Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012; Birk­head and Moller, 1998; Driessen and Rose, 2015)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• female parental care
• pre-hatching/birth
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The south­ern brown bandi­coot lives be­tween two to four years. While there is not a wealth of in­for­ma­tion deal­ing with the south­ern brown bandi­coot’s lifes­pan specif­i­cally, there are stud­ies look­ing at other species in the bandi­coot fam­ily. Con­cern­ing Aus­tralian bandi­coots as a whole, in cap­tiv­ity there is a forty per­cent chance that the young will reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity while in the wild it dras­ti­cally drops to eleven and a half per­cent. ("Bandi­coots", 2006; )

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  2 to 4 years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  2 to 3 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  6.5 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

South­ern brown bandi­coots are gen­er­ally noc­tur­nal, but they can also be di­ur­nal, es­pe­cially dur­ing the win­ter sea­son. This species is ac­tive for six to seven hours a day, with al­most all of its time is spent search­ing for food, get­ting water, or groom­ing and feed­ing. When the south­ern brown bandi­coot needs to build shel­ter for it­self, it gath­ers var­i­ous shrub­bery and veg­e­ta­tion that it comes across. It uses what it has col­lected and builds a nest-like pile that gets placed over a shal­low hole such as a va­cant rab­bit hole or con­cav­ity on the soil sur­face. This species chooses nest areas that will pro­vide ad­e­quate shel­ter and are well hid­den by sub­stan­tial veg­e­ta­tion. Bandi­coots are soli­tary, ex­cept dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. When males meet one an­other, hos­til­ity can be shown. In de­ter­min­ing dom­i­nance, the in­di­vid­u­als will bite and at­tack each other with their forepaws. Dur­ing these at­tacks it is com­monly seen for a male to bite off a part of an­other males’ tail. Fe­males, on the other hand, when com­ing in con­tact with males or other fe­males, have a ten­dency to avoid one an­other. (Driessen and Rose, 2015; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial
• diurnal
• nocturnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• sedentary
• daily torpor
• solitary

Home Range

The home range for the south­ern brown bandi­coot varies on the amount of other bandi­coots cen­tral­ized in one space. Males can have a range vary­ing be­tween two to seven hectares, while fe­males range be­tween one to three hectares. As for ter­ri­tory, it is un­clear whether or not this species has a dis­tin­guished area that it pro­tects. In­stead, avoid­ance of one an­other is prac­ticed un­less it is time to breed. ("Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The south­ern brown bandi­coot is a noc­tur­nal crea­ture that has well adapted eye­sight, but its sense of smell is su­pe­rior. Be­tween two dif­fer­ent males the south­ern brown bandi­coot has been ob­served to ag­gres­sively naso-nasal and naso-anal sniff each other, re­treat, and then re­peat. Fe­male-fe­male and fe­male-male in­ter­ac­tions have been seen to gen­er­ally avoid each other. There are four spe­cific sounds and vo­cal­iza­tions that this species have been found to make. To lo­cate one an­other they use a high-pitch noise that is bird-like. When feel­ing threat­ened, a vo­cal­iza­tion which sounds like loud “chuff, chuff” will be cou­pled with an equally loud squeaky whis­tle. An­other com­mu­ni­ca­tion sound made is when the south­ern brown bandi­coot is ex­pe­ri­enc­ing fear or if it is in pain, a loud shriek is ex­pelled. The last known vo­cal­iza­tion made by this species is a “whuff, whuff” sound that is made when ir­ri­tated. ("Bandi­coots", 2015; Driessen and Rose, 2015; "Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

South­ern brown bandi­coots are om­ni­vores, and their diet con­sists of plants, fungi, and in­ver­te­brates. Com­monly-con­sumed in­ver­te­brates in­clude ants, bee­tles, earth­worms, cen­tipedes, crick­ets, but­ter­flies, and ear­wigs. How­ever, for plants and fungi, species con­sumed will vary de­pend­ing on the sea­son.

When search­ing for food, the south­ern brown bandi­coot mainly digs small holes in the soil and uses its sense of smell to lo­cate food sources. It is ex­tremely com­mon for mul­ti­ple holes to be dug if it is found that there is a high con­cen­tra­tion of food in a cen­tral area. How­ever, it has also been ob­served search­ing through the above­ground veg­e­ta­tion to for­age. A key in­di­ca­tion when look­ing for a spot where for­ag­ing has oc­curred is to look for small scratch marks in the soil. These marks are dis­tinct be­cause of their cylin­dri­cal shape. This shape al­lows this species the abil­ity to stick its long nose into the ground. These holes can be found to be as deep as sev­eral cen­time­ters. ("Bandi­coots", 2006; Driessen and Rose, 2015; "Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • vermivore
• herbivore
  • granivore
• omnivore
• mycophage

• Animal Foods
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• terrestrial worms

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• seeds, grains, and nuts
• flowers

• Other Foods
• fungus

Pre­da­tion

Pre­da­tion upon the south­ern brown bandi­coot has been found to be by larger an­i­mals. This in­cludes such an­i­mals like the eu­ro­pean red fox (Vulpes vulpes), wild dogs (Canis lupus fa­mil­iaris), and both do­mes­tic and feral cats (Felis catus). Barn owls (Tyto alba) and tiger snakes (Notechis scu­ta­tus) also are known preda­tors.

Al­though as a means of pro­tec­tion, the south­ern brown bandi­coot heav­ily uti­lizes ground veg­e­ta­tion as cam­ou­flage. ("Bandi­coots", 2006; "Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern)", 2015; "Isoodon obe­su­lus ssp. obe­su­lus", 2008; "Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797)", 2012; "South­ern brown bandi­coot (Isoodon obe­su­lus) Re­cov­ery Plan", 2006)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • Cats (Felis catus)
  • European red fox (Vulpes vulpes)
  • Wild dogs (Canis lupis familiaris)
  • Barn owl (Tyto alba)
  • Tiger snake (Notechis scutatus)

Ecosys­tem Roles

The south­ern brown bandi­coot bur­rows into the ground when look­ing for shel­ter or food. When it does this dig­ging it turns over an av­er­age of 10 kilo­grams of soil per day. This turnover al­lows for soil to bet­ter allow the ger­mi­na­tion of seeds, be­cause it is eas­ier for the seeds to get rooted into a top soil with more mois­ture in­stead of a harder, dryer top soil crust. There are two pro­to­zoan par­a­sites that af­fect this species: Gi­a­r­dia and Eime­ria quenda. (Ben­nett and Hobbs, 2016; Cahill, 2013; Hill­man, et al., 2016)

• Ecosystem Impact
• soil aeration

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

There are no known pos­i­tive eco­nomic ef­fects of Isoodon obe­su­lus on hu­mans.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known detri­men­tal eco­nomic ef­fects on hu­mans by Isoodon obe­su­lus.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

The south­ern brown bandi­coot is con­sid­ered a species of “Least Con­cern” ac­cord­ing to the IUCN Red List. There is not other sta­tus of this species on the US Fed­eral List, the CITES, or the State of Michi­gan List.

Ur­ban­iza­tion and the gen­eral clear­ing of forests and other areas has caused a de­crease in the pop­u­la­tion across areas of Aus­tralia and Tas­ma­nia. Even though this species is de­clin­ing, there is an as­sumed high pop­u­la­tion and wide dis­tri­b­u­tion of the south­ern brown bandi­coot, es­pe­cially in areas pro­tected as a na­tional park.

There are re­cov­ery plans set in place be­cause of the doc­u­mented de­clines. Mea­sures in­clude en­sur­ing that its habi­tat is pro­tected, the build­ing of a net­work be­tween gov­ern­ment and non-gov­ern­ment or­ga­ni­za­tions to fa­cil­i­tate the re­cov­ery of this pop­u­la­tion, and pro­mot­ing pub­lic aware­ness of this de­cline. There are sev­eral pro­jects in place, such as the St. He­lens Bi­olink Pro­ject which aides in mon­i­tor­ing of foxes, a po­ten­tial preda­tor. (Friend, et al., 2008)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Kasey Blevins (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Cari Mc­gre­gor (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Zeb Pike (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, April Tin­gle (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Jacob Vaught (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Genevieve Bar­nett (ed­i­tor), Col­orado State Uni­ver­sity, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

State of New South Wales and Of­fice of En­vi­ron­ment and Her­itage. Bandi­coots. none. State of New South Wales: State of New South Wales and Of­fice of En­vi­ron­ment and Her­itage. 2015. Ac­cessed April 15, 2016 at http://​www.​environment.​nsw.​gov.​au/​help/​copyright-disclaimer.​htm.

2006. Bandi­coots. Pp. 824-827 in P Mac­don­ald, ed. The En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Mam­mals: Vol­ume III. Mar­su­pi­als, In­sect Eaters, and Small Her­bi­vores, Vol. 3, 3 Edi­tion. N/A: Facts on File.

Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment: De­part­ment of the En­vi­ron­ment. Isoodon obe­su­lus - south­ern brown bandi­coot (East­ern). N/A. Can­berra: Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment: De­part­ment of the En­vi­ron­ment. 2015.

Gov­ern­ment of South Aus­tralia: De­part­ment for En­vi­ron­ment and Her­itage. Isoodon obe­su­lus ssp. obe­su­lus. FIS 90346. Bio­di­ver­sity Con­ser­va­tion Unit, Ade­laide Re­gion: De­part­ment for En­vi­ron­ment and Her­itage. 2008.

De­part­ment of En­vi­ron­ment and Con­ser­va­tion. Quenda: Isoodon obe­su­lus (Shaw, 1797). N/A. Gov­ern­ment of West­ern Aus­tralia: De­part­ment of En­vi­ron­ment and Con­ser­va­tion. 2012.

De­part­ment of En­vi­ron­ment and Con­ser­va­tion (NSW). South­ern brown bandi­coot (Isoodon obe­su­lus) Re­cov­ery Plan. N/A. Hurtsville, NSW: NSW DEC. 2006.

Ben­nett, M., R. Hobbs. 2016. A new Eime­ria species par­a­sitic in Isoodon obe­su­lus (Mar­su­pi­alia: Per­amel­i­dae) in West­ern Aus­tralia. Jour­nal of Par­a­sitol­ogy, 102/1: 1129-1131.

Birk­head, T., A. Moller. 1998. Sperm Com­pe­ti­tion and Sex­ual Se­lec­tion. San Diego, Cal­i­for­nia: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

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Friend, T., K. Mor­ris, J. van Wee­nen, J. Win­ter, P. Menkhorst. 2008. "Isoodon obe­su­lus" (On-line). The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species. Ac­cessed Jan­u­ary 27, 2016 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​details/​40553/​0.

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Haby, N., J. Con­ran, S. Carthew. 2013. Mi­cro­hab­i­tat and veg­e­ta­tion struc­ture pref­er­ence: An ex­am­ple using south­ern brown bandi­coots (Isoodon obe­su­lus obe­su­lus). Jour­nal of Mam­mal­ogy, 94/4: 801-812.

Hill­man, A., A. Ash, A. El­liot, A. Lym­bery, C. Perez, A. Thomp­son. 2016. Con­fir­ma­tion of a unique species of Gi­a­r­dia, par­a­sitic in the quenda (Isoodon obe­su­lus). In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal for Par­a­sitol­ogy: Par­a­sites and Wildlife, 2016: 1-6.

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Paull, D., D. Mills, A. Clar­idge. 2012. Frag­men­ta­tion of the south­ern brown bandi­coot Isoodon obe­su­lus: Un­rav­el­ing past cli­mate change from veg­e­ta­tion clear­ing. In­ter­na­tional Jour­nal of Ecol­ogy, 2013: 1-11.

War­bur­ton, N., L. Gre­goire, S. Jacques, C. Flan­drin. 2013. Adap­ta­tions for dig­ging in the fore­limb mus­cle anatomy of the south­ern brown bandi­coot (Isoodon obe­su­lus) and bilby (Macro­tis lago­tis). Aus­tralian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 61: 402-419.