A STRANGE ANIMAL

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 111, 11 May 1923, Page 10

A STRANGE ANIMAL

THE ANT-EATING NUMBAT

AUSTRALIA'S LINK WITH DIM

ACES.

(FROM OUR OWN COIIRESfONDENT.)

SiX.VEi, 25tjj April. Amongst all the strange creatures which make Australia's happy hunting ground for the zoologist the most,extraordinary is a tiny marsupial which survives in Western Australia, but which is rapidly nearing extinction. It is said to be the sole living link with the dim past when our planet first began to boast of animal inhabitants. The earliest fossilised remains of animals known to scientists are placed in the Eocene period, and are those of the order microlestes. In the south of Western Australia there lives this curious marsupial measuring perhaps a foot from the point of his nose to the end of his long tail, and wearing a transversely striped coat of white and brown, who can clearly claim descent from the microlestes—millions of years back among the ages. This interesting little .animal, whose name is numbat, though to science he is known as mynecobious sasciatus, was once plentiful in the Williams district, but land settlement and consequently clearing is proceeding so rapidly that he is likely to be extinct within a, few years. Last week the Premier of Western Australia received a numbat as a present from a member of Parliament from that part of the State, and after inspecting the little fellow he sent him across to the Zoological Gardens. The curator (Mr. Le _ Souef) stated subsequently that he was turning the new arrival loose in the gardens. "We cannot afford to keep him in captivity," he explained, "for he lives entirely on ants.: and it would take three men, at 15s each per day, to collect sufficient food for him."

The numbat hag the largest number of teeth of any known animal—nearly eighty. 1..

Unfortunately, Australia's wonderful animals and birds have been all too poorly appreciated.. Prohibition of ex port, which has just been imposed, has, it is feared, come too late to save many interesting species from extinction. Some timely remarks on this subject were made by a visiting American ornithologist, Colonel Casey Woods, of New York, on his arrival on a visit, to Australia a few days ago. He said that in his opinion we have in Australia the rarest and most wonderful collection of birds to be found in any one country. The lyre bird, with its wonderful plumage and its power of mockery, which surpasses even that of the American mocking bird, is one of the most interesting birds to be found anywhere. The old superstition about our birds being songless is still extant in many places, but Colonel Casay Woods hopes, by leoturing in America, to dispel some popular illusions about our fauna. He is strongly opposed to the wanton destruction of bird life which is now permitted, with so-called sportsmen having heavy powered guns, against defenceless birds. These birds, he says, should be preserved, not only for sentimental reasons, but also on account of their tremendous value to the country. In his opinion, the best way to preserve the birds is not so much by the passing of laws, but by the appointment of nature teachers, as in America, to take the children out into the country, where they may make "friends" with the birds.