Bandicoot

A bandicoot is any of about 8 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial marsupial omnivores in the subfamily Peramelinae (the true bandicoots) of the family Peramelidae; or in a broader sense, any of about 21 species of fairly similar animals in the order Peramelemorphia. This page describes the true bandicoots.

Classification within the Peramelemorphia used to be simple: there were thought to be two families in the order—the short-legged and mostly herbivorous bandicoots, and the longer-legged, more nearly carnivorous bilbies. In recent years, however, it has become clear that the rainforest bandicoots[?] of New Guinea and far-northern Australia are distinct from all other bandicoots, and these remain within the order but are now grouped together in the separate family Peroryctidae[?].

The bilbies, on the other hand, despite their distinct appearance and habits, are more closely related to the true bandicoots than they look, and they are now regarded as merely a subfamily within the Peramelidae.

• ORDER PERAMELEMORPHIA
• Family Peramelidae
  • Subfamily Peramelinae:
    • Western Barred Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville
    • Eastern Barred Bandicoot, Perameles gunnii
    • Long-nosed Bandicoot[?], Perameles nasuta
    • Desert Bandicoot, Perameles bougainville (extinct)
    • Golden Bandicoot, Isoodon auratus
    • Northern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon macrourus
    • Southern Brown Bandicoot, Isoodon obesulus
    • Pig-footed Bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus (extinct)
  • Subfamily Thylacomyinae: bilbies, 2 species
• Family Peroryctidae[?]: rainforest bandicoots, about 11 species in 4 genera