#Greater Bilby

[briery]

An endangered Greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) runs happy and free in the feral predator-proof fenced area in Pilliga National Park, northern New South Wales, Australia. (Larger 1, 2).

[lazer-t]

Greater Bilby

This illustration will be July's ko-fi Sticker Club design!

[hyetart]

　  ◯◌　 ♪　 (˘⤙˘ ◍)　 🌿　 ᵎ

[littlesapphicraccoonguy]

Recent animal doodles, sorry you can hardly see my writing on the 4th one i genuinely dont know why i drew the stars over it

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Australia's native wildlife have been hit incredibly hard by invasive species introduced by Europeans, such as red foxes, rabbits, domestic cats, and rats. In fact, the lesser bilby won't be getting reintroduced with its greater counterpart because the lesser species went extinct in the 1950s due to cat and fox predation. This makes the greater bilby the very last species in its genus.

While the death of any wild animal may be saddening, especially one as charismatic as a red fox, the only way this reintroduction area would have been safe for the bilbies released there would be if all the foxes were removed. And it's heartening to think how these native omnivores will be able to thrive and have a better chance of surviving well into the future, instead of being wiped out by predators that never should have been there in the first place.

[bjekkergauken]

Inktober day 3: Greater bilby

[yeehawpim]

HELLO these creatures are not shrews but i wonder if you would like them - the australian greater bilby!!! its a small desert marsupial that used to exist across 70% (!!!) of australia but now bc of factors like feral cats (eat bilbies), rabbits (food competition), & wildfires (unpredictable, lack of traditional patch burning) they’re much reduced & close to extinction. they’re extremely cool!! nocturnal burrowers with long snouts!! & a very white tip to their tail! also the males have huge foreheads bc they’re too big to curl up to sleep so they use their head as a pillow!

omg theyre so sweet 😭😭❤️❤️❤️I didn't know they existed and now I'm part of the fan club. Couldn't find a picture of them sleeping but oughhgough i need ittttt

[mindblowingscience]

If you were to host a blacklight party in the taxidermy wing of a natural history museum, most of the mammals would fit right in with their eerie fluorescent glow. That's what Kenny Travouillon, the curator of mammalogy at the Western Australian Museum, found when his team shone ultraviolet light on 125 species of mammal in the collection. The luminous effect wasn't restricted to platypuses and wombats, which were identified as biofluorescent species a few years ago. Every species of mammal they examined emitted a green, blue, pink, or white hue under UV light. The inside of a red fox's pointy ears turned shocking, fluorescent green. The polar bear lit up like a white t-shirt under a blacklight, as did the zebra's white stripes and the leopard's yellow fur. The wings of the orange leaf-nosed bat became a stark white skeleton, while its fur glowed pink. And the ears and tail of the greater bilby shone "bright like a diamond," as Travouillon described in 2020. The study showed that fluorescence is present in half of mammalian families, almost all clades, and in all 27 orders.

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[thatswhywelovegermany]

The Easter Bunny / Easter Hare

In German Easter tradition, the Easter Bunny is an imaginary rabbit or hare who paints eggs at Easter and hides them in the garden. Children search for Easter eggs on the morning of Easter Sunday. The motif of the Easter Bunny has recently spread in the popular culture of Easter, also through its commercial use, and has largely replaced earlier bringers of the Easter egg.

As far as is known, the Easter Bunny was first mentioned in the dissertation of the Frankfurt doctor Johannes Richier, who received his doctorate in 1682 under the respected Heidelberg professor of medicine Georg Franck von Franckenau with his treatise "De ovis paschalibus - von Oster-Eyern". The son of the pastor Jean Richier, who had fled France for religious reasons, describes a custom in Upper Germany, the Palatinate, Alsace and neighbouring regions, as well as Westphalia, according to which an Easter Bunny lays the eggs (ova excludere) and hides them in gardens in the grass, bushes, etc., where they are eagerly searched for by children amid laughter and to the amusement of the adults (cum risu et iucunditate seniorum). He calls the Easter Bunny hiding the eggs “a fable that is told to simpletons and children” (fabula, que simplicioribus et infantibus imponunt).

According to cultural studies, the reason for the strong upswing that belief in the Easter Bunny experienced in the 19th century can be found in the industrial production of cheap beet sugar, which made the production of affordable chocolate bunnies and eggs possible in the first place.

The connection between the Christian Easter festival and the egg as a symbol has been known in various European countries since the Middle Ages at the latest, and may even date back to earlier. There is also an older interpretation of the rabbit as a symbol of resurrection since Ambrose. The diverse Christian symbolism of the rabbit found expression in many works of art in the Middle Ages, see Rabbit in art. The connection between the rabbit and the Easter egg tradition is still unclear, however, even if the fertility of rabbits in itself has a close connection to spring. The following hypotheses are often put forward:

Some early painted Easter eggs show the three-hare image, a depiction of three hares with only three ears in total, but each hare having two ears due to the "double use" of ears; this is a well-known symbol for the Holy Trinity. It is possible that this depiction may have given rise to the idea of ​​the hare as an egg supplier.

In one passage in the Bible, Psalm 104:18, older translations speak of "hares". The reason for this was the Latin translation of Proverbs 30:26, in which Jerome translated the Hebrew "schafan" (rock hyrax) as "lepusculus" (hare). Since late antiquity, this passage has been interpreted as a symbol for the weak human (hare) who seeks refuge in the rock (Christ). This interpretation established the symbolism of the hare in Christian iconography.

It is widely considered harmless to tell young children that the Easter Bunny brings eggs and sweets for Easter. Psychologists believe that this illusion stimulates the imagination and supports cognitive development. However, children's critical questions and doubts should be supported so that their belief in the Bunny eventually disappears by itself, also through interaction with other children.

The Easter Bunny was spread outside of Europe by German-speaking emigrants. It has gained a certain popularity in the USA in particular. In English, the term "Easter Bunny" predominates over the literal translation "Easter Hare", so the figure is often understood to be a rabbit.

In Australia, the "Easter Bilby" has been placed alongside the "Easter Bunny" since the 1970s. The aim is to draw attention to the endangered species of the greater burrowing bandicoot ("Bilby"), not least due to the spread of European rabbits, and to raise money for a conservation fund by selling chocolate bilbies.

[mammalianmammals]

Greater Bilby (Macrotis lagotis), family Tylacomyidae, found in NW Australia

photograph by Bernard DuPont

[reasonsforhope]

"A large research project studying endangered species in Australia has tallied 29 recovered species—all animals that can be safely de-listed from the country’s endangered species list.

Australia’s Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act currently lists 446 species of animals in genuine need of protection, but 29 of those are no longer in need—15 mammals, 8 birds, 4 frogs, a reptile, and a fish.

Among these critters are the golden, Western barred, and Eastern barred bandicoots, Western quoll, sooty albatross, waterfall frog, Flinder’s Range worm-lizard, yellow-footed rock wallabies, greater bilby, humpback whale, growling grass frog, Murray’s cod, and others.

Australia has been a focus of endangered species conservation for decades because so many of the animal varieties are found nowhere else.

Invasive predators introduced and living here for decades, including foxes and cane toads, have proven highly disruptive to local wildlife like bandicoots and bilbies.

Unlike America’s ESL, the EPBC doesn’t mandate that species be reviewed regularly for recovery. These large scientific papers are rare and represent moments to celebrate for Australia’s conservationists."

-via Good News Network, 2/28/23

[ningauinerd]

The lesser bilby (Macrotis leucura), less degradingly known as the yallara by the Wangkangurru people, is one of Australia's many many obscure recently extinct mammals. It was last seen alive by western observers in 1931, although based on First Nations knowledge (and a skull found under an eagle's nest) it appears to certainly have survived at least into the 1960s.

(Image credit: Oldfield Thomas’ Catalogue of the Monotremes and Marsupials in the British Museum)

The yallara was smaller and less colourful than the living greater bilby (M. lagotis), hence its description of as the "lesser" of the two species, but what it lacked in stature it made up for in ferocity. Unlike its larger cousin, the yallara was reportedly very aggressive and feisty, with Hedley Finlayson (one of the few scientists to observe the species in life, and the last) writing that they: "...completely belied their delicate appearance by proving themselves fierce and intractable, and repulsed the most tactful attempts to handle them by repeated savage snapping bites and harsh hissing sounds, and one member of the party, who was persistent in his intentions, received a gash in the hand three quarters of an inch long from the canines of a male."

Although few observations of the species were made in life and much of their ecology remains a mystery, they may also have been more carnivorous than the living greater bilby. Investigations of stomach contents found large quantities of skin and fur from rodents, with only limited seeds and no insect fragments having been ingested. However, this information only comes from a small sample of individuals, so whether or not the yallara was the most predatory of all modern bandicoots will likely remain uncertain. They also differed in behaviour from greater bilbies by always blocking the entrance to their burrow after entering.

The species was only observed by Europeans in the harsh deserts of north-eastern South Australia and the south-east of the Northern Territory, but testimony from Aboriginal peoples indicates it also extended further west into the Great Sandy and Gibson Deserts of Western Australia. Being reported as common when last observed by Finlayson in the 1930s, its decline and extinction appears to have occurred entirely unobserved by western eyes, but it is likely that they were a victim of the usual troubles - invasive species and changing fire regimes.

[lazer-t]

July Sticker Club design: Greater Bilby!

Join before August 1st to get this design!

By joining my sticker club for $15 a month, each month you will receive:

x1 Standard Vinyl Sticker (5.5 x 7cm)

x1 Large Vinyl Sticker (11 x 13.5cm) (Sticker Club Exclusive)

x1 Standard Vinyl Glow in the Dark Sticker (5.5 x 7cm) (Sticker Club Exclusive)

x1 Large Vinyl Glow in the Dark Sticker (11 x 13.5cm) (Sticker Club Exclusive)

x1 Mini Print (14 x 15.5cm) printed on coloured card + signed on the back

x1 Single-use Code for 10% off your next BigCartel store order

A hand-written thank you note from me

x1 Random mystery sticker from my store!

The design of the stickers and print will be a different animal each month!

More info below the cut:

Comes with standard untracked shipping included.

You can join and quit my Sticker Club membership whenever you like. If you are a continuous subscriber, your rewards for each subsequent month will be dispatched 1-3 days after your billing date (approximately the same date as the one you joined each month).

I also have a 1$+ tier available on my ko-fi with no specific rewards, for anyone who would like to support me otherwise.

If you would prefer just the standard sticker without the subscription, it can be bought individually through my store here.

Large and glow-in-the dark stickers of this design remain exclusive to the Sticker Club and will be unavailable after July 31st.

August 2024's design will be revealed later this month.

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

[the-sum-of-many-poets]

mineral slippers

caught in their nocturnal jump

seems the stars

vanitas that they are

poured themselves into a salt lake

its phantom wake

a saucer of milk before dawn

sun

rise you diligent baker

we make animal tracks in its crust

disobedient cubs

etching our own hieroglyphs

soothsayers

the wood swallow

the lace monitor so long it licks the horizon

& me

the greater bilby

we call from the rosetta stone

to the nothingness

as great voids compel us to do

moot on existential absurdities

elevate a flake to the sun

at certain angles

a prism switches on

in tribute to the rain

a cryptic response locked inside

amplifies when it touches the tongue

the famine of colour is a paradox

white holds the quiet like a bell jar

as if a century seized in its own cog

©️david sichler

[steakout-05]

apologies for being australian on main two times in a row but i find it really funny when people from other countries are first learning about the creatures we have over here and are just. so confused and bewildered. i remember that post of someone talking about how instead of the Easter Bunny, we have a mascot called the Easter Bilby and someone reblogged it going "what the fuck", and i'm just sitting there like "..... yeah? i thought everyone knew this" and it's very entertaining. seeing people be genuinely bewildered, confused and afraid that this silly lil guy exists,

is some of the most entertaining shit ever and it'll never get old

this is the Greater Bilby, by the way, and it is currently a vulnerable species in Australia, with many efforts being made to save it from endangerment and extinction. there used to be a lot more of them, but because of threats to habitat and competition with other animals (like red foxes, feral cats and dingoes), they became an endangered species, though they fortunately now no longer hold that status. the Lesser Bilby is much less lucky though, as they were unfortunately deemed extinct in the 1950s. i love these lil guys so much and i want to hold one in my hands and give it a nice soft blanket in it's little burrow to curl up and fall asleep on :)