Eastern Barred Bandicoot Spotlighting Tour
Hamilton, Victoria

We need your help to monitor populations to help us understand how we can better assist this vulnerable species!

Come join us on a night time spotlighting tour to look for Eastern Barred Bandicoots and other little critters living inside the 6km predator proof fence in Hamilton!

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot is a small, nocturnal marsupial. The mainland subspecies of Eastern Barred Bandicoot, Perameles gunnii, is listed as extinct in the wild.

Eastern Barred Bandicoots rest in a shallow, grass lined nest during the day and come out to forage at night on a variety of invertebrates, such as worms, grubs and beetles. They are solitary animals and have a short gestation period, with young born after just 12 days of pregnancy. They have distinct bars on their rump as their name suggests.

Eastern Barred Bandicoots were once widespread across the grasslands and grassy woodlands of western Victoria, extending into the south-east corner of South Australia. Widespread decline of the species occurred across Victoria, primarily due to a combination of predation by introduced foxes and habitat loss. By the 1970’s, the subspecies could only be found in Hamilton, but this population was also declining.