Its long, rabbit-like ears have increased its popularity as the new native Australian icon for Easter. You can see endangered Bilbies at Earth Sanctuaries. There have also been the impacts of shooting and trapping for their pelts, ingesting rabbit poison, resource competition and habitat destruction by livestock and changed burning regimes. There used to be another much smaller Bilby species known as the 'Lesser Bilby' Macrotis leucura from central Australia that has been presumed extinct since the 1930s. Of the many millions of Bilbies living in Australia just 200 years ago, only a few thousand remain today.
Bilbies breed throughout the year, commonly having two young suckling from teats in the pouch.
Like Koalas, Wombats and their close Bandicoot relatives, Bilbies have backward opening pouches. The young stay in the pouch for about 80 days. When they are too large for the pouch, they are kept in the burrow for about 2 weeks while the mother returns to suckle them throughout the night. Bilbies become mature at six months of age when they are old enough to forage for themselves. The common diet of adult Bilbies includes ants, termites, beetles, centipedes, grasshoppers, larvae, seeds, underground fungi, fruits and bulbs.