Marsupial
The greater bilby is what the Easter rabbit is not
Long ears, a soft pouch that opens backwards, and a former range that collapsed across southern and eastern Australia.
- EPBC listing
- Vulnerable
- When it forages
- Nocturnal
- Remaining wild range
- Arid inland
- Lesser bilby
- Extinct
The greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is a Vulnerable nocturnal marsupial in the bandicoot order (Peramelemorphia). It once occupied much of arid and semi-arid Australia. Foxes, cats, rabbits, and habitat change reduced it to scattered inland populations and conservation refuges. It is the animal conservation groups ask Australians to remember at Easter.
Definition
Greater bilby. A long-eared, burrowing marsupial (Macrotis lagotis). The lesser bilby (Macrotis leucura) is extinct.
What it is
Soft blue-grey fur, a crested tail, and ears that look borrowed from a rabbit. The pouch opens backwards, a burrower’s solution to sand. Diet is omnivorous — insects, seeds, fungi, bulbs — dug with strong forelimbs.
The historic /BILBY.htm and /Bilby.html paths 301 here.
Why the range collapsed
Public recovery documents name foxes and cats, rabbits (competition and habitat), changing fire, and pastoral impacts. The lesser bilby did not survive that century. The greater bilby did — barely, in the inland, and in places people fenced.
Viewing and “Easter bilbies”
A chocolate campaign is not a viewing technique. If you visit a sanctuary, follow their nocturnal-tour rules. If you work in country where wild bilbies persist, you already know not to publish a burrow.
Read the conservation essay.
Identification and the backward pouch
Soft blue-grey fur, a crested tail, and ears that look borrowed from a rabbit. The pouch opens backwards, a burrower’s solution to sand. Diet is omnivorous — insects, seeds, fungi, bulbs — dug with strong forelimbs. The lesser bilby (Macrotis leucura) did not survive the last century. Do not write as if two wild bilby species still occupy the inland.
Historic /BILBY.htm and /Bilby.html 301 here.
Why the range collapsed — and what “recovery” means
Public recovery documents name foxes and cats, rabbits (competition and habitat), changing fire, and pastoral impacts. The greater bilby persists in parts of the arid and semi-arid inland and on some managed islands and fenced sanctuaries. That sentence is not a public timetable and not a GPS pin.
A chocolate Easter campaign is a fundraising and awareness tool. It is not a viewing technique. If you visit a sanctuary, follow their nocturnal-tour rules. If you work in country where wild bilbies persist, you already know not to publish a burrow.
This site will not invent a live headcount or a “best place to see a bilby” ranking. Cite the recovery program for current access. Cite DCCEEW and the IUCN Red List for the current listing words.
Related animals people confuse
Bandicoots are related digging omnivores, generally smaller-eared and still present in more suburban and woodland settings depending on the species. A bilby is not a bandicoot with marketing. A rabbit is not a bilby.
Viewing and the ethic
Nocturnal, shy, and conservation-listed. Distance, no dogs, no digging, no flash into a burrow. Licensed venues and some Zoo and Aquarium Association members keep education animals under published welfare standards — not a ranking, and not a wild guarantee.
If you want the habitat argument, read regions (arid and semi-arid) and conservation. If you want the emblem argument, read the journal essay. If you want a photograph of a wild burrow for social media, you want a different hobby.
Islands, fences, and the inland that is still wild
Some bilbies live inside fences or on islands because that is how predators were taken out of the equation. Some still live in open inland country. Those are different sentences. Do not write a sanctuary brochure over a wild population, and do not write a wild guarantee over a nocturnal tour. The emblem essay is the chocolate argument. This page is the animal. Both refuse a ranking of refuges.
Questions
Questions people actually ask
The greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis) is a Vulnerable nocturnal marsupial in the bandicoot order, with long rabbit-like ears and a backward-opening pouch. The lesser bilby is extinct.