Animal
Numbat
The numbat is a small striped animal from Australia. It eats only termites. It licks them up with its long, sticky tongue.
The numbat is a striped marsupial from Australia that eats almost nothing but termites, up to 20,000 a day. Unlike most Australian marsupials, it is busy in the daytime, when termites are near the surface. Foxes and cats brought to Australia wiped out most numbats, but protected sanctuaries are helping them come back.
Myrmecobius fasciatus, the only living member of its family, is a diurnal, termite-eating marsupial once widespread across southern Australia. Introduced foxes and cats reduced it to two natural populations in south-western Western Australia; reintroductions into fenced, predator-free sanctuaries followed. Its 2026 IUCN assessment lists it as Near Threatened.
Photo: Martin Pot (Martybugs at en.wikipedia), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Meet the numbat
The numbat is a small animal with stripes.
Its front half is reddish-brown. Its back has white stripes. It has a pointy nose and a fluffy tail.
The numbat is a marsupial about 25 centimeters long, with a bushy tail that adds about 17 centimeters more. It weighs around 600 grams.
Its head and shoulders are rusty orange-brown, and further back its fur turns gray-black with bold white bands across the rump. Every numbat's stripe pattern is different, like a fingerprint, so scientists can tell them apart. A black stripe runs from its pointed snout through its eye to its ear.
Myrmecobius fasciatus grows to about 25 centimeters head-and-body, with a 17-centimeter tail (Australian Wildlife Conservancy); adults weigh about 500 to 700 grams. The pelage shades from rusty red-brown on the head and shoulders to gray-black with white transverse bands on the rump, and a black stripe runs from the muzzle through the eye to the base of the ear.
Stripe patterns are individually distinctive and are used, with color and size, to identify numbats in the field. It is the only living species in its family, Myrmecobiidae (Encyclopaedia Britannica). The numbat is Western Australia's mammal emblem (Perth Zoo).
Quick facts
- Group
- Mammal
- Length
- up to 25 cm
- Weight
- 500 to 700 g
- Top speed
- up to 30 km/h
Where it lives
Numbats live in Australia.
They live in dry woodlands with lots of fallen logs. At night they sleep inside hollow logs.
Numbats once lived across much of southern Australia, in woodlands, forests and sandy plains. Today only two natural populations are left, both in the south-west of Western Australia.
Numbats have also been moved into big fenced sanctuaries that keep out foxes and cats, in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales. At night numbats shelter in hollow logs, tree hollows or burrows, which keep them safe and warm.
Historically the species occupied mulga woodland, spinifex sandplain and eucalypt woodland and forest across much of arid and semi-arid southern Australia; only two naturally occurring populations remain, both in south-western Western Australia (Australian Wildlife Conservancy).
Reintroduced populations live inside feral predator-free fenced areas at Mt Gibson (Western Australia), Yookamurra (South Australia), and Scotia and Mallee Cliffs National Park (New South Wales). Hollow logs, tree hollows and burrows provide night refuges from nocturnal predators and cold.
Continent
Its habitat
Where can you find this animal?
- Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
- Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Lives here naturally · Countries and seas named by a scientific source
Two natural populations in south-western Western Australia, plus reintroduced populations in fenced, predator-free sanctuaries in Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales. Numbats once lived across much of southern Australia.
Places: Australia.
Source: iucn-red-list · checked October 2026
Sightings recorded · Records of wild sightings (GBIF)
Counts of GBIF records of wild observations (human and machine) and preserved specimens. Records include introduced populations, vagrants, escaped or released animals and misidentifications, so a country with records is not necessarily part of the native range.
Wild sightings have been recorded in Australia.
Source: gbif · checked October 2026
Range maps show where scientists say an animal lives, often country by country. An animal may live in only part of a country shown, and sightings records can include animals that wandered far from home.
Termites, termites, termites
Numbats eat termites, tiny insects that live in the ground.
A numbat can eat thousands of termites in one day!
Numbats eat almost nothing but termites, and an adult needs up to 20,000 a day. A numbat sniffs out termites with its sharp sense of smell, digs with its front paws and licks them up with its long, sticky tongue.
Its claws are not strong enough to break into a termite mound, which is as hard as concrete. So a numbat waits for termites to move through shallow tunnels near the surface, where it can reach them.
The numbat is an obligate termite specialist; Perth Zoo states that an adult needs up to 20,000 termites a day. It locates termites by smell, exposes them with its forefeet and gathers them with a long, sticky tongue (Australian Wildlife Conservancy).
Its claws cannot breach hard termite mounds, so it forages where termites travel in shallow soil galleries. Because termite activity depends on soil temperature, the numbat's daily schedule tracks it closely: in winter it feeds from mid-morning to mid-afternoon; in summer it feeds early, shelters through the hot middle of the day and feeds again in the late afternoon.
Did you know?
The numbat is a special animal for Western Australia.
The numbat is the mammal emblem of the state of Western Australia.
The numbat is Western Australia's official mammal emblem.
A daytime marsupial
Numbats are awake in the daytime.
They lie in the sun to get warm. They can run very fast!
Most Australian marsupials come out at night, but the numbat is awake in the day, when its termites are active. Perth Zoo says it is one of only two marsupials that are active only in the daytime.
Numbats have thin fur, which helps them soak up the sun's heat when they sunbathe on cold days. Their fluffy tail traps warm air and also sends signals to other numbats. A numbat often sits up on its back legs to look around, and if it is scared it can run at more than 30 kilometers an hour.
The numbat is one of two strictly diurnal marsupials (Perth Zoo). Its thin fur absorbs solar heat during basking, and in winter it can enter torpor for up to 15 hours a day; the bushy tail traps air for insulation and acts as a visual signal (Australian Wildlife Conservancy).
It has five digits on each forefoot and four on each hind foot, with fairly strong claws. Numbats sit upright to scan for danger, then freeze or bolt for cover, reaching more than 30 kilometers an hour. In the breeding season, a sternal gland stains males' chests reddish-brown with an oily scent they rub on logs and rocks.
Babies without a pouch
A numbat mother has no real pouch.
Her babies hold on to her belly fur. Later they live in a burrow.
Numbats mate in January, and the babies are born only about two weeks later. Numbats do not have a proper pouch. Instead, the tiny babies hold on to their mother's teats and grip her belly fur with their front legs.
After about six months, the mother leaves her young in a burrow and comes back at night to feed them milk. In September the young start to come out of the burrow, and by October they find their own food.
Mating typically occurs in January and young are born about two weeks later (gestation about 14 days in the Mammalian Species account). Lacking a typical pouch, the young attach to the teats and entwine their forelimbs in the surrounding fur (Australian Wildlife Conservancy).
After about six months of attachment, the mother deposits the young in a burrow and suckles them at night. Juveniles begin to emerge in September and forage independently from October, timed with rising termite activity in spring.
Watching out
Numbats sit up tall to look for danger.
If they see something scary, they hide under a log.
Numbats spend their days moving through woodland, sniffing for termites. They often stop to sit up on their back legs and look around.
If a numbat senses danger, it freezes, or it runs fast to hide under bushes, trees or logs. When the day gets cold or hot, it rests in a hollow log or burrow. In the breeding season, males leave smelly marks on logs and rocks to attract females and warn other males away.
Numbats forage alone through the day, regularly rising onto their hind legs to scan. When they sense danger they either freeze or run for cover beneath shrubs, trees and logs (Australian Wildlife Conservancy).
Daily activity follows termites and temperature, with rests in logs or burrows during the hottest summer hours and long torpor bouts in winter. Breeding males mark logs and rocks with sternal gland secretion, a signal that attracts females and deters rival males.
Did you know?
Numbats lie in the sun to warm up.
Numbats sunbathe on cold days; their thin fur helps them soak up the sun's warmth.
Thin pelage aids solar heat gain during basking, especially in cold weather.
A comeback story
Foxes and cats hunted many numbats.
Now people keep numbats safe behind special fences. A zoo helps by raising baby numbats.
Foxes and cats were brought to Australia by people, and they hunt numbats. Together with land clearing and fires, this left numbats in just two wild places.
Now numbats live in large fenced sanctuaries that keep foxes and cats out. Perth Zoo has bred numbats for release since 1993: by September 2023 more than 294 had been set free into protected places. The IUCN now lists the numbat as Near Threatened.
Predation by introduced red foxes and feral cats is the main threat, worsened by habitat loss and fragmentation from land clearing and by fire (Australian Wildlife Conservancy; Perth Zoo). Only two natural populations remain.
Recovery relies on feral predator-free fenced sanctuaries and captive breeding: Perth Zoo's Native Species Breeding Program had released more than 294 zoo-bred numbats by September 2023. The IUCN Red List assessment by Woinarski and Burbidge (assessed 2025, published 2026) lists the species as Near Threatened, with about 2,000 to 3,000 mature individuals and a stable but severely fragmented population.
IUCN Red List
How is the numbat doing in the wild?
- Least Concern
- Near Threatened (this animal)
- Vulnerable
- Endangered
- Critically Endangered
- Extinct in the Wild
- Extinct
Near Threatened
Not at risk yet, but it could be soon.
See the IUCN Red List assessment · The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2022.2
Amazing facts
-
No two numbats have the same stripes.
Each numbat's stripe pattern is unique, like a fingerprint, so scientists can tell numbats apart.
Individually unique stripe patterns, with color and size, are used to identify numbats.
-
Numbats lie in the sun to warm up.
Numbats sunbathe on cold days; their thin fur helps them soak up the sun's warmth.
Thin pelage aids solar heat gain during basking, especially in cold weather.
-
The numbat is a special animal for Western Australia.
The numbat is the mammal emblem of the state of Western Australia.
The numbat is Western Australia's official mammal emblem.
-
Numbat babies have no real pouch to ride in.
A numbat mother has no proper pouch: her babies hold on to her teats and grip her fur.
Lacking a typical pouch, young attach to the teats and entwine their forelimbs in the mother's fur.
Words to know
- marsupial
- a mammal whose babies are born tiny and grow attached to their mother, often in a pouch
- termite
- a small insect that lives in big groups and eats wood
- diurnal
- active during the day
- sanctuary
- a protected place where animals can live safely
- introduced
- brought by people to a place where it did not live before
Discovery challenge
-
What does a numbat eat?
What is the numbat's main food?
On what does the numbat specialize?
- Termites
- Leaves
- Fish
Show the answer
Termites
Termites, lots and lots of them!
Termites: an adult needs up to 20,000 a day.
Termites, almost exclusively; up to 20,000 a day.
-
When is a numbat awake?
When are numbats active?
Why is the numbat diurnal?
- In the daytime, when termites are active
- Only at midnight
- Only in winter
Show the answer
In the daytime, when termites are active
In the daytime.
In the day, because that is when termites move near the surface.
Its activity tracks temperature-dependent termite activity in shallow soil.
-
Which animals hunted many numbats?
What caused the biggest decline in numbats?
What is the main threat to numbats?
- Foxes and cats brought by people
- Kangaroos
- Snow
Show the answer
Foxes and cats brought by people
Foxes and cats.
Foxes and cats that people brought to Australia, plus land clearing and fire.
Predation by introduced foxes and feral cats, worsened by habitat loss and fire.
-
Where do numbat babies hold on?
How do numbat babies hold on to their mother?
How are young numbats carried, given the lack of a typical pouch?
- To her teats and belly fur
- In a pouch with a zipper
- On her tail
Show the answer
To her teats and belly fur
They hold on to her belly fur.
They hold on to her teats and grip her fur; numbats have no proper pouch.
Attached to the teats with forelimbs entwined in the fur, for about six months.
Places where you might see it
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain how an animal's daily routine can follow its food.
- Describe how introduced predators affect native wildlife.
- Understand how fenced sanctuaries and zoo breeding help endangered species.
- Compare marsupial babies with other mammal babies.
Recommended ages: 3 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- Why might a termite eater be awake in the day while most of its neighbors are awake at night?
- Why can introduced animals, like foxes and cats, be such a problem for native animals?
- Fences keep numbats safe but also keep them in. What are the good and hard parts of that?
Try at home or in class
- Draw your own numbat stripe pattern, then compare it with a friend's: no two are the same, just like real numbats.
- Find Perth and the south-west corner of Western Australia on a map of Australia.
Key vocabulary: marsupial, termite, diurnal, sanctuary, introduced
Where these facts come from
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and GBIF Occurrence Search , Global Biodiversity Information Facility (CC0 1.0 (backbone); occurrence counts are facts derived from records under CC0, CC BY and CC BY-NC)
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN terms of use (no redistribution of Red List data or range maps))
- Numbat , Australian Wildlife Conservancy
- Numbat , Perth Zoo
- Myrmecobius fasciatus: IUCN Red List global assessment record (Woinarski & Burbidge 2026), IUCN checklist on GBIF , GBIF
- Myrmecobius fasciatus (Numbat), Woinarski & Burbidge 2026, global assessment , IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- Numbat , Encyclopaedia Britannica
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file: Public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA only (credited on each page))
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.