Macrotis leucura

– Extinct

Taxonomy

Kingdom:	ANIMALIA
Phylum:	CHORDATA
Class:	MAMMALIA
Order:	PERAMELEMORPHIA
Family:	THYLACOMYIDAE
Scientific Name:	Macrotis leucura
Species Authority:	(Thomas, 1887)
Common Name/s:	LESSER BILBY (Eng) LESSER RABBIT-EARED BANDICOOT (Eng) WHITE-TAILED RABBIT-EARED BANDICOOT (Eng) YALLARA (Eng) BANDICOOT-LAPIN MINEUR (Fre) BANDICOOT-LAPIN À QUEUE BLANCHE (Fre) PETIT BANDICOOT-LAPIN (Fre) PETIT PÉRAMÈLE-LAPIN (Fre) CANGURITO NARIGUDO COLIBLANCO (Spa)
Taxonomic Notes:	Was under the family Peramelidae.

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

EX ver 2.3 (1994)

Year Assessed:

1996

Annotations:

Needs updating

Assessor/s:

Australasian Marsupial & Monotreme Specialist Group

Justification:

The last confirmed collection of Macrotis leucura was in 1931.

History:

1965	-	"Status inadequately known-survey required or data sought" as Thylacomys leucura (Scott 1965)
1982	-	Extinct (Thornback and Jenkins 1982)
1986	-	Extinct (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1986)
1988	-	Extinct (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988)
1990	-	Extinct (IUCN 1990)
1994	-	Extinct (Groombridge 1994)

Geographic Range

Range Description:	Macrotis leucura was endemic to Australia.
Countries:	Regionally extinct: Australia

Population

Population:

The last confirmed collection of a specimen was in 1931.

Habitat and Ecology

Habitat and Ecology:

The species was associated with soils suitable for burrowing in areas such as savannah, sparsely vegetated deserts and xeric shrublands.

System:

Terrestrial

List of Habitats:

4.5	Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical Dry

Threats

Threats:

The population was drastically reduced throughout the early twentieth century as a result of the animal being trapped for its pelt. This along with predation from introduced species such as foxes and competition with rabbits for burrows is thought resulted in the extinction of this species.

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Groombridge, B. 1992. Global Biodiversity: Status of the Earth’s Living Resources. Report compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Chapman and Hall, London.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1986. 1986 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1988. 1988 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Maxwell, S., Burbidge, A.A. and Morris, K. (compilers) 1996. Action Plan for Australian Marsupials and Monotremes. IUCN/SSC Australasian Marsupial and Monotreme Specialist Group. .

Nowak, R.M. (ed.) 1999. Walkers Mammals of the World. Sixth edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London.

Scott, P. (ed.) 1965. Section XIII. Preliminary List of Rare Mammals and Birds. In: The Launching of a New Ark, pp. 15–207. First Report of the President and Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund. An International Foundation for saving the world's wildlife and wild places 1961–1964. Collins, London.

Thornback, J. and Jenkins, M. 1982. The IUCN Mammal Red Data Book. Part 1: Threatened mammalian taxa of the Americas and the Australasian zoogeographic region (excluding Cetacea). IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Citation:	Australasian Marsupial & Monotreme Specialist Group 1996. Macrotis leucura. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 04 July 2008.
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