Bilbies are found in a wide range of habitats from arid terrain to semi-arid shrub-lands or woodlands. Prior to European settlement, the bilby was distributed over 70% of the Australia mainland. After European settlement and the introduction of predators; the domestic cat, domestic dog and fox; competition animals, goats, rabbits; and land clearing for farming which has reduced safe bilby habitats to a few small isolated colony’s in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. There are currently only 10, 000 bilbies left in the wild. There are a number of zoos and wildlife centres are actively breeding Bilby's to be released into protected areas.
Burrows
Bilbies dig their burrows, up to two meters in depth, commonly under a spinifex bushes or near termite mounds. Bilbies may have up to 12 borrows in use at any one time, allowing them places to hide from predators and to travel to where the food is growing. Bilby’s like to have at least one borrow next to one of their favourite food source, a termite mound. The location of the bilby’s current habitat, the Northern Territory and Western Australian Deserts are hot, so the Bilby’s borrow is in a spiral configuration. Building the burrow this way keeps the heat in the top section of the tunnel and allows the bottom section to remain cool through the heat of the day. The length and spiral configuration to the burrow makes it difficult for predators to treverse down the tunnel in persuit of a bilby or locate the exact location of the end of burrow where the bilby or its young will be.
