Bilbies are omnivores eating mainly termites and their larvae, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, bulbs, seeds, fungi, and fruit. Bilbies, being nocturnal, feed one hour after dark until one hour before dawn. The Bilby’s digestive system has a single stomach.
The Bilby’s faces issues in diet such as; having low water content, and have large amounts of sand and soil in food due to ingestion while eating.
Bilby's do not need to be near a water source as they do not drink water, instead gaining their water intake from the food they consume.
The Bilby's faecal material is about half made up of sand and dirt. This is because when the Bilby eats insects it will sallow the sand or dirt the insect is standing on.
Predators
The Bilby’s main introduced predators is the domestic cat, but it also falls victim to foxes, and domestic dogs. They also compete for food and burrows with rabbits who out breed Bilbies eight to two per litter as well as rabbits have more litters per year. The Bilby’s 'native' predators are dingoes and wedge tailed eagles.
Domestic/feral cat
Domestic/feral dog
Like the cat, dogs are baited and subject of culling be shooting. Unlike the cat the dog also pays on farming livestock so farming and rural communities have organised ongoing eradication programs.
Fox
Red foxes were introduced when Europeans settled to continue the stop of fox hunting. It was not long until foxes became a major issue for Australian native animals and they have like the dog, are subject to baiting and culling programs. The numbers of foxes across Australia have decreased and stabilized over the past 20 years as a combined result of fox management programs.
Rabbits
In attempt to control the rabbit the Australian government built a rabbit proof fence in Western Australia in 1907, but the the rabbits got through this and compete with a number of Australian native animals for burrows and food. In the 1950's the government tried to reduce the feral rabbit population with the introduction of the myxoma virus. This virus is estimated to have reduced the feral rabbit population from 600 million to 100 million until the population became resistant to the virus. The myxoma virus then evolved to instead attack the gut by increasing bacteria in the gut, usullay harmless but multiplied to a lethal ammount.
