The Rabbit and the Bilby Read the information below about an introduced animal—the rabbit—and how it has caused problems for the bilby—a native Australian animal.
Rabbits Rabbits make cute pets but have caused a lot of damage to the environment and problems for some of our native animals.
r o e t s Bo r e p ok u S After her young are born she digs another breeding burrow.
The young rabbits feed on roots, seedlings and grass. They also strip leaves off the trees and kill the tree by eating its bark.
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A female rabbit digs a burrow for breeding. Sometimes she uses a bilby’s or another type of bandicoot’s burrow.
© R. I . C.Publ i cat i ons The soil crumbles because of the tunnels. Plants find it hard to grow again. The •f rr eplace vi ewhere wp usame r po se soall nl y• rabbits move too another the will happen over again.
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The Bilby
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The bilby is an Australian mammal about the size of a small cat. It is nocturnal, which means it feeds and moves about at night. It lives in burrows deep in the ground. The bilby is an endangered animal. It used to be common in southern areas of Australia. But now, introduced animals are causing problems for the bilby. Cattle destroy their shelter by walking over bilby burrows and making them collapse. Foxes attack and eat them. But the worst problem for the bilby is rabbits. Not only do rabbits take over their burrows, they also eat their food. Now, bilbies only live in some desert areas of Australia where they don’t have to worry about rabbits and foxes. There may be only a few hundred bilbies left in Australia.
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