What do numbats eat?

Question

What kind of food do Numbats feed on?

Answer 1

Numbats mainly eat termites, consuming up to 20,000 of them each day. They have a long, slender tongue which they use to lick up the termites, and their sticky saliva helps capture the insects. Occasionally, numbats also eat ants, beetle larvae and other small insects.

Answer 2

Numbats are insectivorous and primarily feed on termites. They have a long, thin tongue that can extend up to 10cm, which they use to lap up termites from their nests. Numbats eat only one species of termite, known as the "mound-building termite" (genus Termitidae), which they locate by smell and by listening to their movements within the termite mounds.

Numbats are able to consume large quantities of termites in a single day, with an adult numbat requiring up to 20,000 termites per day. They are able to tolerate the toxic chemicals present in the termites by producing special enzymes that break down the toxins. In addition to termites, numbats may also occasionally feed on other insects, such as ants and beetles, and small invertebrates like spiders.

Overall, numbats have a highly specialized diet that is adapted to their unique ecological niche, and their dependence on termites makes them particularly vulnerable to changes in habitat and the availability of their food source.