The numbat is a small, striped marsupial and the animal emblem of Western Australia. Once found across much of southern Australia, it is now a threatened species — fewer than about 1,000 remain in the wild.
What the numbat needs to survive
- Food: it eats almost only termites — up to 20,000 a day, licked up with a long sticky tongue.
- Shelter: it sleeps in hollow logs and burrows, which protect it from weather and predators.
- Habitat: open eucalypt woodland with plenty of fallen timber and termites.
Threats to its survival
- Introduced predators: feral cats and foxes hunt numbats. This is the single biggest threat.
- Land clearing: removing woodland takes away the hollow logs and termites the numbat depends on.
- Small numbers: with so few left, the species is fragile — one bad event can wipe out a whole group.
What is being done to help
- Predator-proof fenced reserves keep cats and foxes out — numbat numbers have risen inside them.
- Captive breeding at places like Perth Zoo raises young numbats to release into the wild.
- Habitat protection keeps woodland and fallen logs in place so the numbat has food and shelter.