Myrmecobiidae
The Numbat (Myrmecobius fasciatus) is an endangered small marsupial native to western and southern Australia with a number of unique features. The Numbat is the sole member of the family Myrmecobiidae, one of the three families that make up the order Dasyuromorphia, the generalised marsupial carnivores.
The old common name for the Numbat, Banded Anteater, has fallen into disuse, but was unusually appropriate: the Numbat does have a series of 5 to 7 white bands crossing its lower back and rump, and it does eat ants, although only accidentally: its primary, almost exclusive, diet is termites.
It is a small, colourful, highly photogenic creature between 20 and a little under 30 cm long, with a finely pointed muzzle and a prominent, very bushy tail about the same length as the body. Colour varies considerably, from soft grey to reddish-brown, often with an area of brick red on the upper back, and always with a conspicuous black stripe running from the tip of the muzzle through the eye to the base of the small, round-tipped ear. The underside is cream or light grey; weight varies between 30 and just over 70 grams, the female usually being very slightly the larger of the two.
Unusually for a marsupial, Numbats are diurnal, largely because of the constraints of having a specialised diet without having the usual physical equipment for it. Most ecosystems with a generous supply of termites have a fairly large creature with a very long, thin, sticky tongue for penetrating into termite colonies, and powerful forelimbs with heavy claws for breaking open the hardened, concrete-like surface of the nest. The Numbat has the appropriate type of tongue and, as with other mammals that eat termites, a New South Wales and Victorian borders west to the Indian ocean, and as far north as the south-west corner of the Northern Territory. It was at home in a wide range of woodland and semi-arid habitats. The deliberate release of the European Red Fox in the 19th century, however, wiped out the entire Numbat populations in Victoria, NSW, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, and almost in Western Australia as well. By the late 1970s, the entire population was well under 1000 individuals, concentrated in two small areas not far from Perth, Dryandra and Perup.
It appears that the reason these two small populations were able to survive is that both areas have many hollow logs to serve as refuges from predators. Being diurnal, the Numbat is much more vulnerable to predation than most other marsupials of a similar size: its natural predators include the Little Eagle, Brown Goshawk, Collared Sparrowhawk and Mammals
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|align=center| Xenarthra |
Dermoptera |
Desmostylia |
Scandentia |
Primates |
Rodentia |
Lagomorpha |
Insectivora |
Chiroptera |
Pholidota |
Carnivora |
Perissodactyla |
Artiodactyla |
Cetacea |
Afrosoricida |
Macroscelidea |
Tubulidentata |
Hyracoidea |
Proboscidea |
Sirenia
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|align=center| Monotremata
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|align=center| Didelphimorphia |
Paucituberculata |
Microbiotheria |
Dasyuromorphia |
Peramelemorphia |
Notoryctemorphia |
Diprotodontia
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