Video transcript
Did you see any cone-shaped holes on the ground? They're from the long-nosed bandicoot. This night vision shows them digging around in the leaf litter for roots, insects and fungi to eat. When they're digging like that, they help aerate the soil and disperse fungal spores. They play a really important role in the environment.
They'd be sleeping now in a nest on the ground, not far from here probably underneath a grass tree.
When the Europeans arrived in Australia there were 12 species of bandicoot and now there's only seven.
And here's some of the threats... foxes. Both foxes and cats are introduced animals that predate on the bandicoot. Other animals like rabbits compete for the same niche in the environment.
Although the original population drastically declined after European settlement, fox baiting is now helping to stabilize the population, and people are reporting more sightings of bandicoots both in the bush and in their adjoining backyards. So one simple thing that you can do to help protect bandicoots is to keep your pets in at night.