Once the Numbat was found across southern Australia from western NSW to the coast of WA. Today it is endangered, surviving in a few isolated forests in south-western WA.

The Numbat is red brown in colour. Its darker rump is banded with white and it has a dark stripe across its eye. An active Numbat's long tail looks like a bottle-brush.

It is one of the few marsupials that feeds during daylight. A Numbat shelters and sleeps in a hollow fallen log. Sometimes it may dig a burrow.

Although Numbats feed on termites, they cannot tear open termite mounds. Instead, they scratch open termite runways or pull apart soft, rotting wood. Then they use their long tongues to lick up the insects.

A female Numbat has 4 young. They are born in January, carried around for 5 months and then fed in a nest for another 5 months.

Much of the Numbat's habitat has been cleared. In the limited areas where it lives, it is under threat from bushfires and foxes. Where foxes are controlled, Numbats repopulate.