Random Things About Bilby, Officially Cutest Animal You've Probably Never Heard Of (13 items)

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  (#11) Who Needs Forks With Such A Useful Tongue?

  So how does the bilby catch its dinner? Especially with such horrible eyesight. It starts with their ears, which they put to the ground to listen for movement. When they hear something, they burrow down and use their dexterous, wiggly little nose to seek out their target. Their nose moves somewhat like an elephant trunk, though it can't pick things up.

  Instead, the bilby is equipped with a very long tongue, like an anteater, which they use to scoop up bugs. Of course, they end up eating a lot of dirt too with this method, but it still nets them their prey.
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  (#8) The Glamorous Bilby Only Lives In Burrow-Mansions

  One of the things a bilby is best at is digging. Because they don't like to be out and about during the day, they live in cool, dark burrows deep underground. They have five front toes, with curved claws, that make them excellent at tunneling, and they have back feet similar to a kangaroo, which helps them kick out dirt and move through their burrows.

  The burrows themselves are also impressive. Bilbies make their burrows long and spiraling so predators will find it difficult to get in. These burrows may be two meters deep, which doesn't seem all that impressive, until you consider that bilbies tend to have numerous burrows. In fact, each bilby can have up to a dozen burrows to themselves. That's 24 meters of burrow for a single animal. Bilbies really like their space.
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  (#6) Bilbies Have Serious Beef With Bunnies

  Australia has a serious rabbit problem. They aren't native to Australia and since being introduced there, they have done horrible things to the native animal populations and wildlife. The government has even taken action to control the rabbit problem.

  Rabbits have especially proven a pest to the poor bilbies. Rabbits have encroached on the bilby's habitat, food supply, and efforts to poison rabbits have been just as murderous to bilbies as rabbits. Thus Australians would rather see an Easter Bilby over that pest the Easter Bunny. They are actively trying to replace the Easter bunny with the Easter Bilby. Chocolate bilbies are available in stores instead of chocolate bunnies and stories of the Easter Bilby have been written for kids.
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  (#3) Bilbies Don't Need To Drink Water Like Other Supermodels

  This might seem like a shocker. After all, don't all animals drink water? As it turns out, several mammals in Australia don't actually need to drink water in order to hydrate, including the Koala and, you guessed it, the bilby. Instead, the bilby has a diet of moisture and water-rich food to absorb water from, including both plants and animals.

  This omnivorous flexibility is what enables the animal to survive. In order to help with this survival, the Bilby does not come out during the day, conserving its body moisture by avoiding the heat and sunlight that would otherwise dry it out. On occasion, the bilby may take advantage of water if it is available, but it generally doesn't need to find a lake, pond, river, or even puddle in order to get by.
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  (#13) The Bilby Is One Of A Kind Due To Extinction

  There was once two types of bilbies. There was the greater bilby and the lesser bilby, and the second of these two went extinct sometime in the 1960's. This happened for many reasons including non-native predators such as cats, foxes, and dogs that liked to hunt the lesser bilby.

  Before these invaders, bilbies had few to no predators for hundreds of years and were free to thrive. Then rabbits ravaged their environment making it impossible for them to get enough food. The greater bilby survives but is in a precarious state. It is listed as threatened and endangered throughout Australia and continued problems with rabbits and foxes cause population declines. Conservation efforts are currently underway to help the bilby, so hopefully this precious creature will grace the Internet with its adorableness for years to come.
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  (#7) Bilbies Know How To Get Busy

  Speaking of rabbits, we all know how fast those little critters are known to reproduce. In one month, a rabbit can produce a batch of up to eight or nine baby bunnies. Shockingly, the bilby has the bunny beat in the baby-making business. From mating to birth, a bilby is only pregnant for a maximum of two weeks before having babies, making them one of the fastest reproducing mammals in the world.

  Bilbies can also breed at any time of year, as long as there is food in supply for the animals to live on. Bilbies can have up to four babies, though usually have only one or two, and they can reproduce multiple times per year. So, as far as their amorous habits, the bilby puts the bunny to shame.

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