I don't have a lawn. If I did have a lawn, it wouldn't last very long. Not only do the pademelons nibble down any vascular plants that poke their leaves above the moss, but the bandicoots like to strip-mine the garden. Bandicoots are both industrious and secretive. I suspect they are exporting the soil to Comalco and investing the proceeds in fine art.
Two species of bandicoot occur in this area: the long-nosed (Perameles nasuta) and the northern brown (Isoodon macrourus). I'm no mammal expert, but I'm pretty sure this is the former.
Bauxite mining is a sideline. Most of their digging activity is a search for invertebrates — beetle larvae, cicada nymphs, worms, burrowing spiders — and fungi. They supplement their diet with small amounts of plant matter. If they can wrest it from the pademelons.
Unfortunately, long-nosed bandicoots aren't good with cars. Despite the low volume of traffic on this road, one of the young bandicoots (possibly this one) got flattened the other night. The roadkill didn't last long — a matter of hours — so some scavenger did very well for itself.
