The greater bilby is a medium-sized burrowing marsupial with long, soft, blue-grey fur over most of the body and white to cream on the belly. It has large ears, a long pointed snout and a black tail with a white tip. It has forelimbs that have three stoutly clawed toes (and two unclawed toes) that enable the greater bilby to burrow effectively. The hind limbs are slender. The greater bilby grows to 55 cm long with a tail up to 29 cm long and reaches a maximum weight of 2500 g for males and 1100 g for females.
Greater Bilby |
Macrotis lagotis
Status: Vulnerable on the EPBC Act list
Government evidence of impact of climate change:
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Australian Government, Conservation Advice, Macrotis lagotis
Threat prevalence and intensity varies due to location so they have been categorised into broad geographic partitions of northern range bilbies (where the threats posed by fire are higher) and southern range bilbies (where the threat of foxes is more significant).
Fire Too frequent Northern known Extensive and intense fires remove vegetation (cover) current from large areas; potentially causing increased predation pressure; including by introduced predators.
Fire frequency is higher in the northern range. (Bradley et al.; 2015).
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