Southern pig-footed bandicoot

Chaeropus ecaudatus

Blamed on foxes

IUCN status: Extinct

Last seen: Chaeropus ecaudatus were last seen in 1901 in Alice Springs, NT (IUCN 2023)

IUCN claim: “The extinction of the Pig-footed Bandicoot is attributed to predation by feral cats and red foxes.”

Studies in support

No studies

Studies not in support

Southern pig-footed bandicoots were last confirmed in the Murray-Darling, Alice Springs, Western Division of NSW, Youndegin, and southwest Australia 49-23, 19-14, 30-5, 32-27, and 95-61 years before foxes arrived, respectively (Wallach and Lundgren 2025).

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

All five bandicoot extirpation records pre-date fox arrival records.

Evidence linking Chaeropus ecaudatus to foxes. Last records of extirpated populations relative to earliest local records of foxes. Error bars show record uncertainty range. Predator arrival records were digitized from Fairfax 2019.
Evidence linking Chaeropus ecaudatus to foxes. Last records of extirpated populations relative to earliest local records of foxes. Error bars show record uncertainty range. Predator arrival records were digitized from Fairfax 2019.

References

Fairfax, Dispersal of the introduced red fox (Vulpes vulpes) across Australia. Biol. Invasions 21, 1259-1268 (2019).

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023

Wallach A.D., Lundgren E.J. (2025) Review of evidence that foxes and cats cause extinctions of Australia’s endemic mammals. BioScience. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biaf046