145, Numbat

Today,I’ll be talking about the numbat, a species of marsupial that is fromAustralia. First,the numbat is a very interesting looking animal. It is small and squat, with asmall pointed head and long bushy tail. The fur is reddish brown and darkensnear the rump. There are several white bands curving from one side of its bodyto the other. The numbat has small teeth and a long sticky tongue. It hasstrong claws for digging and, unlike other marsupials, females do not have apouch for carrying young. Thenumbat eats termites, and adults need to eat up to 20,000 termites a day. Theyare diurnal, meaning they are active during the day unlike most marsupials.They spend most of their time looking for termites to eat by digging up loosedirt and use their long sticky tongue to eat them. Thenumbat used to be widespread across Australia, but has become an endangeredspecies and now lives in Southwestern Australia. Conservation efforts havehelped them to live in a few reserves in the country.