Female bilbies are the only caregivers of young and have a pouch that opens rearward to avoid filling with soil and nipples inside and outside of the pouch.
Female bilbies are the only caregivers of young and have a pouch that opens to the rear so as to avoid filling with soil when the animal is burrowing.
While in the pouch, bilby offspring obtain all of their nourishment from the mother’s milk. Bilby females have nipples both deep inside the pouch and nipples that hang outside the pouch. Each type of nipple provides a different type of milk for the offspring living outside the pouch versus inside the pouch.
• Image | © D Coatzee, Public Domain, (CC0 1.0)
• Sources | (Brown, 2011; Environment Australia, 2004; Humble, 2006; Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory, 1998; Pavey, 2006; The Wikimedia Foundation, 2021)
