If you live in Tasmania, you may have walked outside in the morning to find small holes scattered across the lawn or freshly disturbed soil in the garden. Something has clearly been digging overnight, although you may never have seen the animal responsible.
There is a good chance it was a bandicoot.
Bandicoots are regular nighttime visitors to gardens and properties across parts of Tasmania. They usually emerge after dark to forage and can easily come and go without being seen. For many people, the holes they leave behind are the first sign that bandicoots are visiting at all.
It can be frustrating when the digging happens across a lawn or garden bed, particularly when a bandicoot keeps returning to the same area. But there is a reason they are digging, and the activity beneath our lawns is more interesting than the small holes left behind.
Understanding what bandicoots are doing in our gardens is an important part of living alongside them. It can also help us make our backyards safer for these familiar Tasmanian mammals without expecting people to simply accept every bit of damage they cause.
Which Bandicoot Is Visiting Your Garden?
Tasmania is home to two species of bandicoot, and both can turn up in gardens, paddocks and around the edges of bushland. The Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) and Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) are mostly active at night, which can make telling them apart difficult unless you get a good look at them.
The Eastern Barred Bandicoot is generally the easier of the two to recognise. It has a long, pointed snout, large ears and several pale bars across its rump. Its fur is usually greyish brown and its body is relatively slender. The species remains widely distributed in Tasmania, although the Tasmanian subspecies is listed as vulnerable under national environment law. On mainland Australia, the species underwent a severe decline and now survives in reintroduced populations in Victoria.
The Southern Brown Bandicoot is stockier, with a shorter snout, smaller rounded ears and coarse brown fur. It does not have the distinctive pale rump bars of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot and generally has a more compact appearance.
In daylight, those differences can be fairly obvious. At night, when you catch a brief glimpse of a small brown animal disappearing under a shrub, identification can be considerably harder. Fortunately, you do not need to know which species is visiting to make your garden safer for bandicoots.
Why Bandicoots Dig Up Lawns
The small holes bandicoots leave in lawns and garden beds are made while searching for food. They use their strong sense of smell to locate food beneath the surface, then dig with their front feet and claws. This creates the narrow, cone shaped holes that are often the first sign a bandicoot has been visiting.
Bandicoots are part of a much larger group of Australian mammals that forage by digging. Bettongs, long nosed potoroos, bilbies and echidnas all turn over soil while searching for food. Many of these species have declined or disappeared from parts of their former ranges, meaning this once widespread disturbance of the soil has also been reduced.
Bandicoots have a varied diet that includes insects and their larvae, worms and other invertebrates, along with fungi and plant material. A lawn or garden bed with plenty happening beneath the surface can provide a good place to feed, which is why the same patches are sometimes dug over again and again.
The holes can become more noticeable after rain or when the soil is moist. Softer ground is easier to dig through, and some of the invertebrates bandicoots feed on may also be easier to find under these conditions.
For anyone trying to maintain a lawn, the result can be frustrating. But while a bandicoot is looking for food, it is also turning over the soil. This is why bandicoots and other digging mammals are sometimes described as ecosystem engineers.
As bandicoots forage, they break up the soil surface and move material between different depths. Leaf litter and other organic material can be mixed into the ground, while the small pits left behind can collect seeds and leaf litter.
Research on Southern Brown Bandicoots has found that their foraging pits can retain more moisture than undisturbed soil and collect leaf litter and seeds. Other studies have found changes in soil nutrients and higher rates of seedling growth or germination in areas affected by bandicoot digging.
Foraging by bandicoots therefore does more than create holes in lawns. Their digging can make measurable changes to the soil and the small areas around each foraging pit.
Making Your Garden Bandicoot Friendly
If bandicoots are already visiting your garden, it is likely providing at least some of the food and habitat they need. Making the area more suitable does not require turning the backyard into a wildlife sanctuary.
Dense vegetation provides bandicoots with cover and places to shelter during the day. Native shrubs, grasses and low growing plants can be useful, along with leaf litter, fallen branches and logs. Leaving some areas beneath shrubs less heavily maintained can also support the insects and other invertebrates bandicoots feed on.
Bandicoots also need to be able to move between suitable areas. Solid fences can restrict that movement, while small gaps beneath fences may allow them to pass between neighbouring gardens. Any wildlife access should be considered carefully where dogs are kept on either property.
Fresh water can also provide an additional resource during hot and dry conditions. A shallow, stable container placed near cover can be useful for wildlife already moving through the garden. We have more information on how to provide water safely, including placement, cleaning and escape routes, in our guide to Providing Fresh Water for Wildlife.
A wildlife friendly garden does not have to be untidy, but it does not need to be stripped of every fallen branch, patch of leaf litter or dense area of vegetation either. Keeping some of that structure in the garden can provide bandicoots with shelter and feeding opportunities while leaving plenty of space for people to use.
Dogs, Cats and Bandicoots
Bandicoots are most active from dusk through the night, which can put them in the same gardens and yards used by domestic pets. An animal foraging in a lawn or beneath shrubs may have little warning when a dog is let outside or a roaming cat enters the area.
Dogs do not need to be aggressive towards wildlife to cause serious injury. Chasing, catching or even briefly mouthing a bandicoot can cause significant harm. If bandicoots regularly visit your property, checking the yard before letting a dog outside at night and supervising dogs after dark can reduce the chance of an encounter.
Cats present a different risk. Even well fed cats retain their hunting behaviour and can prey on native wildlife. Keeping cats indoors or within a secure enclosure prevents them from hunting bandicoots and other animals that may be using the garden. We cover containment and other measures in more detail in our guide to Responsible Cat Ownership in Tasmania.
Dense vegetation can complicate encounters with pets. The same shrubs and ground cover that provide shelter for a bandicoot can leave it with few options if a dog or cat follows it into that cover. Wildlife friendly areas of the garden are therefore most useful when pets cannot pursue animals into them.
Where bandicoots and pets use the same property, small changes in routine can make a substantial difference. Keeping cats contained, knowing when bandicoots are active and checking before letting dogs outside at night can reduce the risk without preventing pets from using the backyard.
Poisons, Pesticides and Garden Chemicals
What we use to control pests and weeds around our homes can also affect wildlife using the same areas. This is particularly relevant for bandicoots because much of their food is found by digging through lawns, garden beds and leaf litter.
Insecticides, snail and slug baits, herbicides and other garden chemicals should always be used according to their directions and with consideration for wildlife that may enter the treated area. Baits also need to be placed and stored so that native animals cannot access them directly.
Reducing unnecessary pesticide use can help retain the insects, worms and other invertebrates that bandicoots naturally feed on. Not every insect in a lawn or garden bed needs to be controlled, and widespread treatment can remove species that are an important food source for wildlife.
Rodent control also requires care. Some rodenticides can remain in poisoned rodents and expose predators and scavengers that subsequently eat them. Other wildlife may also be at risk from direct access to poorly placed baits. Where rodent control is necessary, the product and method used should be chosen carefully to reduce the risk to non target animals.
None of this means that pests cannot be managed in a garden used by bandicoots. It means considering whether chemical control is necessary, using it as selectively as possible and remembering that native animals may be feeding in the same places being treated.
Roads and Other Hazards
Bandicoots may move through several properties while foraging at night, crossing driveways and road verges as they travel between feeding and shelter areas. In suburban and rural areas, even relatively short movements can bring them into contact with roads and other hazards.
Roads are an obvious risk. Bandicoots can be difficult to see at night, particularly on rural roads and around the edges of towns where houses meet bushland. Slowing down in areas where wildlife is commonly seen, especially between dusk and dawn, gives drivers more time to respond when an animal enters the road.
Fences can also restrict the movement of bandicoots between properties. Small gaps beneath or through a fence may provide access, and bandicoots can also dig beneath some fences. Where wildlife access is provided, it is important to consider whether dogs or other hazards are present on either side.
Hazards can also be much closer to home. Loose garden netting can entangle wildlife, while uncovered holes, drains, buckets and other containers can trap small animals that are unable to climb back out. Swimming pools and ponds may also present a risk if there is no way for an animal that falls into the water to escape.
Many of these hazards are simple to address once they are noticed. Securing netting, covering holes and providing escape routes from water can reduce some of the risks faced by bandicoots and other wildlife moving through a property.
If You Find an Injured or Orphaned Bandicoot
A bandicoot that has been hit by a car, attacked by a dog or cat, found injured or behaving abnormally should be assessed by an experienced wildlife rescuer or vet.
In Tasmania, injured and orphaned wildlife can be reported to Bonorong Wildlife Rescue through its 24 hour wildlife rescue service. If you find a bandicoot that appears injured or in distress, contact the rescue service for advice rather than attempting to care for the animal yourself. Depending on the circumstances, you may be asked to contain the animal, transport it or leave it where it is while assistance is arranged.
It is also important to call for advice if an adult bandicoot is found dead. Bandicoots are marsupials, and a female may have dependent young in her pouch that can sometimes survive after their mother has died. Bonorong’s Critical Care Team can advise you on what to do next.
If you are advised to contain an injured bandicoot, keep handling to a minimum and keep children and pets away. The animal should be kept somewhere quiet, dark and warm while assistance is arranged. Do not offer food or water unless instructed to do so by a wildlife rescuer or vet.
Seeking advice quickly gives an injured or orphaned bandicoot the best chance of receiving appropriate care. Our guide on What To Do If You Find Injured or Orphaned Wildlife has more information on responding safely and getting help in Tasmania.
Editorial Note: Wild Island is committed to publishing accurate, evidence based wildlife information. This article has been researched using authoritative sources, including government agencies, scientific research and wildlife organisations. Information was verified against the sources available at the time of publication.
Cover Image by JJ Harrison / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.
