If you’re not from Australia, it’s likely you’ve never heard of an adorable little marsupial called the numbat. Some refer to them as the “marsupial anteater” because they live exclusively on a diet of termites.
Numbats are quite small; including the bushy tail, they grow to be between fourteen and eighteen inches long. Unlike most of our previous So Squee! guest stars, these little guys aren’t nocturnal. They are the only marsupial that are fully active by day, spending most of their days digging up termites, which they snatch up with their long tongues. They are also one of the few marsupials whose females do not have a pouch to carry their babies in.
Although these little guys used to live all across southern Australia and in several areas of Europe, many of their numbers were wiped out by the European red fox. By the 1970’s, only under a thousand of them remained. Luckily, conservation efforts began in 1980 and have managed to increase the population. While numbat sightings are highly increased, they are still classified as endangered.
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