Tonight while reading from our mammals book we were learning about the Bandicoot. My son, as soon as he saw the picture said "It's a SKEEVER! Look Mom!!! It's a skeever".
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So what do you think? Is he right???
Long nose, long tail, the ability to hop out at you, omnivorous, rat like... He might be on to something here....
Just so you know .. a skeever is a pesky animal in a game called Skyrim. They are called "large rat like creatures". They have a tendency to leap out at unsuspecting heros and attack them. They eat everything.
It caused him to be quite interested in learning more about the Bandicoot..
The Bandicoot is a marsupial living in Australia and New Guinea. It is a small to medium sized animal that eats insects, earthworms, insect larvae, and spiders (including the venomous funnel web spider) as well as tubers and fungi. They also nibble on fruits, berries, nuts, seeds, eggs and even small rodents when they are in search of food.
The whole eating spiders thing... alarmed my lad...he'd rather they didn't do that... though I happen to be glad that something eats very venomous spiders. :)
There are about 20 species of them roaming their area of the world.
They are a small animal, so they are as much prey as they are predator so tend to live in places with plenty of hiding spots. They grow quickly upon gaining maturity. Males tending to be bigger than the females.
They make people think of rats (and bandicoot means pig-rat) because of their long, pointed heads and compact bodies followed by a long thin tail. Unlike rats though, they average size about the same as a rabbit, and use their hind legs to hop around. They are generally a nocturnal animal, living up to three years in the wild, and up to seven in captivity. They make a nest in a thicket that only one adult occupies at a time.
Bandicoots live alone except during mating which can happen all year round. Females can have their first litter at 4-5 months old, gestation is only 12 days and since they are marsupials the young are carried in a pouch. Their gestation period is the shortest known of any mammal. They normally have 2-3 litters per year. Each litter will have 2-7 young.
Some bandicoots are on the endangered list due to habitat loss and the introduction of cats and other small animal predators.
Long nose, long tail, the ability to hop out at you, omnivorous, rat like... He might be on to something here....
Just so you know .. a skeever is a pesky animal in a game called Skyrim. They are called "large rat like creatures". They have a tendency to leap out at unsuspecting heros and attack them. They eat everything.
It caused him to be quite interested in learning more about the Bandicoot..
The Bandicoot is a marsupial living in Australia and New Guinea. It is a small to medium sized animal that eats insects, earthworms, insect larvae, and spiders (including the venomous funnel web spider) as well as tubers and fungi. They also nibble on fruits, berries, nuts, seeds, eggs and even small rodents when they are in search of food.
The whole eating spiders thing... alarmed my lad...he'd rather they didn't do that... though I happen to be glad that something eats very venomous spiders. :)
There are about 20 species of them roaming their area of the world.
They are a small animal, so they are as much prey as they are predator so tend to live in places with plenty of hiding spots. They grow quickly upon gaining maturity. Males tending to be bigger than the females.
They make people think of rats (and bandicoot means pig-rat) because of their long, pointed heads and compact bodies followed by a long thin tail. Unlike rats though, they average size about the same as a rabbit, and use their hind legs to hop around. They are generally a nocturnal animal, living up to three years in the wild, and up to seven in captivity. They make a nest in a thicket that only one adult occupies at a time.
Bandicoots live alone except during mating which can happen all year round. Females can have their first litter at 4-5 months old, gestation is only 12 days and since they are marsupials the young are carried in a pouch. Their gestation period is the shortest known of any mammal. They normally have 2-3 litters per year. Each litter will have 2-7 young.
Some bandicoots are on the endangered list due to habitat loss and the introduction of cats and other small animal predators.
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