What does the bilby eat?
Bilbies are omnivores, which mean they feed on a range of foods including seeds, fungi, bulbs, and insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, spiders and termites. When looking for food, the bilby digs small holes up to 25cm deep. These holes are scattered over bilby feeding areas. A bilby feeding hole – the footprints and tail-mark can be seen just below the hole (photo Mellisa Mayhew) The bilby has several distinctive features that it uses to find food. It uses its big ears and sharp sense of smell to find food, and it has a long, skinny tongue that it uses to lick up seeds from the ground. However, this feeding style means the bilby eats a lot of sand. In fact, 20-90 percent of its waste can be sand! Another feature is that it often eats the exoskeletons of insects, which shine in the light when their scat is broken open. A bilby scat (photo Peter Young) The bilby gets most of its water from its food rather than from drinking, which means it can survive in habitats with no standing wate