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Isoodon obesulus
I saw this animal wandering freely in the Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills. It was about the size of a large guinea pig. It has been very difficult to identify whether it is a Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) or a Potoroo (Potorous sp.); however, I'm willing to go with AliceGreenup's and her Dad's diagnosis of bandicoot. : )
I'm leaning more towards southern Brown bandicoot. I have a very good field guide with photographs and the bandicoot seems to have a more pointed, elongated nose and shorter tail like this guy. I got my father's opinion on this one too and he's leaning towards bandicoot also.
When I looked up both animals my search for the Bandicoot took me to: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandicoot...
Which does not look like your sighting, however on looking up the Southern Brown Bandicoot I see what you mean about much they look alike.
But it does appear (from looking at the images section of Google search) that it is the Potoroo, when you load an image of each animal looking as side on as possible, the Bandicoot has a more narrow longer nose.
Bandicoot
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=isood...
Potoroo:
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=potor...
Thanks Sarah! Can you tell me why you think it's a potoroo? According to Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary, they have Long-nosed Potoroos (Potorous tridactylus) and Southern Brown Bandicoots (Isoodon obesulu). Apparently these two species look quite similar and the giveaway is whether the animal hops like a kangaroo or not. Unfortunately I didn't observe it hopping so that's no help. Overall I'm leaning towards potoroo myself, but I am really uncertain about the tail... it looks too short for a potoroo.
I looked up both and it is absolutely the Potoroo, al the features for a Bandicoot are wrong.
Spotted on Dec 2, 2012
Submitted on Dec 24, 2012
