Rare images show tiny Aussie creatures in fierce kangaroo-like battle
Rare images show ordinarily shy marsupials engaging in a fierce battle in the early morning hours. While it's common to see kangaroos boxing each other, there's a reason we don't often see greater bilbies engaging in the same behaviour. There aren't many of them.
The pictures were taken at a predator-proof sanctuary created by Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), which keeps small mammals safe from invasive cats and foxes. Dr Alexandra Ross, an ecologist who studies greater bilby behaviour, said the animals are so sparsely populated, it's uncommon to see two together.
'I find it exciting to have two in one shot, and then to have them fighting is super cool… they're showing a behaviour that would be normal, but we don't see it because they're so rare,' she told Yahoo News.
At least one of the bilbies is a male, and so Ross and the AWC team believe the images may capture a territorial dispute.
'The greater bilby used to cover around 80 per cent of Australia, but its range has declined by 80 per cent. They're super rare, but they're not supposed to be. They're supposed to be a common species,' she said.
Before Europeans arrived in Australia, it would have been common to hear the sounds of greater bilbies throughout Central Australia, extending across to Adelaide and Perth. Today, their range is limited to isolated pockets of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
'These two bilbies fighting should be a common sight outside your bedroom window, but we have to go to all this effort now so they can exist,' Ross said.
📸 Sad story behind viral image highlights Australia's invasive species crisis
😳 Grim discovery in abandoned fishing trap near popular track
🌏 Air crew makes exciting 'once-in-a-lifetime' discovery in outback
The footage was taken in the Northern Territory at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, a 261,501 hectare property that's home to 14 species threatened with extinction.
Because native marsupials evolved without any evolutionary recognition of cats or foxes, in the wild, those that can't quickly learn are quickly killed. Inside the sanctuary, there is some evidence that their wary behaviour changes because they don't have to be on the lookout for introduced predators.
'Once you've got the cats and foxes out, you can bring back the native species that used to be in the area, and then they do spectacularly well.
'They're meant to be here, so as soon as you give them a chance, they do great.'
Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Conspiracy Theorists Are Creating Special AIs to Agree With Their Bizarre Delusions
Conspiracy theorists are using AI chatbots not only to convince themselves of their harebrained beliefs, but to recruit other users on social media. As independent Australian news site Crikey reports, conspiracy theorists are having extensive conversations with AI chatbots to "prove" their beliefs. Then, they post the transcripts and videos on social media as "proof" to others. According to the outlet's fascinating reporting, there are already several bots specifically trained on harebrained conspiracy theories, including a custom bot designed to convince parents not to vaccinate their children. The news highlights a troubling trend, with countless ChatGPT users developing bizarre delusions and even spiraling into severe mental health crises, as we reported last week. Experts have warned that AI chatbots are designed to be incredibly sycophantic, predisposing them to agreeing with users even when doing so is clearly harmful. Much like delusions of spiritual awakenings, messianic complexes, and boundless paranoia, conspiracy theorists are finding the perfect conversational partner in tools like ChatGPT. Since they were trained on the open web — an enormous data set that includes unfounded conspiracy theories, like the belief that vaccines cause autism — they can easily be coaxed into furthering these theories. As Crikey reports, one chatbot called Neo-LLM was trained by a Texan anti-vaxxer using over 100,000 dubious articles from the far-right conspiracy theory news website Natural News. It's unclear how many users have downloaded the chatbot, but promotional videos have garnered tens of thousands of views. In short, it's an alarming trend that shows the dangers of powerful AI chatbot tech falling into the wrong hands. In particular, people suffering from mental health issues can be convinced they're talking to a real authority, rather than a parroting language model that continuously calculates the probability of the next word. That kind of delusion can have devastating consequences. As the New York Times reported last week, a 35-year-old man — who had previously been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia before becoming obsessed with ChatGPT — was shot and killed by police after he charged at them with a knife following a mental health crisis centering on the bot. Since AI chatbots have become incredibly effective at generating convincing-sounding answers, their ill use could have real-life implications. Researchers have shown that AI chatbots can easily be weaponized and taught how to spew an endless firehose of disinformation. With the Trump administration actively rolling back AI regulations and key politicians furthering anti-vaccine conspiracy theories themselves, the future looks bleak. Even tech companies have historically failed to implement effective guardrails to stop chatbots from hallucinating. However, some experts have pondered if the tech could be used for good as well. Last year, researchers at MIT found that chatbots can also be used to reduce the belief in conspiracy theories, a glimmer of hope as the internet becomes increasingly polluted with deranged, AI-generated claims. More on AI delusions: People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Meet the tiny Australian Moth that travels 1,000 km and navigates using the stars
An Australian moth follows the stars during its yearly migration, using the night sky as a guiding compass, according to a new study. When temperatures heat up, nocturnal Bogong moths fly about 1,000 kilometres to cool down in caves by the Australian Alps. They later return home to breed and die. Birds routinely navigate by starlight, but the moths are the first known invertebrates, or creatures without a backbone, to find their way across such long distances using the stars. Scientists have long wondered how the moths travel to a place they've never been. A previous study hinted that Earth's magnetic field might help steer them in the right direction, along with some kind of visual landmark as a guide. Related Does cutting off rhinos' horns protect them from poachers? New study supports controversial approach Since stars appear in predictable patterns each night, scientists suspected they might help lead the way. They placed moths in a flight simulator that mimicked the night sky above them and blocked out the Earth's magnetic field, noting where they flew. Then they scrambled the stars and saw how the moths reacted. When the stars were as they should be, the moths flapped in the right direction. But when the stars were in random places, the moths were disoriented. Their brain cells also got excited in response to specific orientations of the night sky. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It 'was a very clean, impressive demonstration that the moths really are using a view of the night sky to guide their movements,' said Kenneth Lohmann, who studies animal navigation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was not involved with the new research. Researchers don't know what features of the night sky the moths use to find their way. It could be a stripe of light from the Milky Way, a colourful nebula or something else entirely. Whatever it is, the insects seem to rely on that, along with Earth's magnetic field, to make their journey. Related Rare snail that can 'slurp up earthworms like noodles' caught on camera laying an egg from its neck Scientists use special 'squeezing' and electrical probes to collect sperm from endangered kākāpō Other animals harness the stars as a guide. Birds take celestial cues as they soar through the skies, and dung beetles roll their remains short distances while using the Milky Way to stay on course. It's an impressive feat for Bogong moths, whose brains are smaller than a grain of rice, to rely on the night sky for their odyssey, said study author David Dreyer with Lund University in Sweden. 'It's remarkable that an animal with such a tiny brain can actually do this,' Dreyer said.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Meet the tiny Australian Moth that travels 1,000 km and navigates using the stars
An Australian moth follows the stars during its yearly migration, using the night sky as a guiding compass, according to a new study. When temperatures heat up, nocturnal Bogong moths fly about 1,000 kilometres to cool down in caves by the Australian Alps. They later return home to breed and die. Birds routinely navigate by starlight, but the moths are the first known invertebrates, or creatures without a backbone, to find their way across such long distances using the stars. Scientists have long wondered how the moths travel to a place they've never been. A previous study hinted that Earth's magnetic field might help steer them in the right direction, along with some kind of visual landmark as a guide. Related Does cutting off rhinos' horns protect them from poachers? New study supports controversial approach Since stars appear in predictable patterns each night, scientists suspected they might help lead the way. They placed moths in a flight simulator that mimicked the night sky above them and blocked out the Earth's magnetic field, noting where they flew. Then they scrambled the stars and saw how the moths reacted. When the stars were as they should be, the moths flapped in the right direction. But when the stars were in random places, the moths were disoriented. Their brain cells also got excited in response to specific orientations of the night sky. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It 'was a very clean, impressive demonstration that the moths really are using a view of the night sky to guide their movements,' said Kenneth Lohmann, who studies animal navigation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was not involved with the new research. Researchers don't know what features of the night sky the moths use to find their way. It could be a stripe of light from the Milky Way, a colourful nebula or something else entirely. Whatever it is, the insects seem to rely on that, along with Earth's magnetic field, to make their journey. Related Rare snail that can 'slurp up earthworms like noodles' caught on camera laying an egg from its neck Scientists use special 'squeezing' and electrical probes to collect sperm from endangered kākāpō Other animals harness the stars as a guide. Birds take celestial cues as they soar through the skies, and dung beetles roll their remains short distances while using the Milky Way to stay on course. It's an impressive feat for Bogong moths, whose brains are smaller than a grain of rice, to rely on the night sky for their odyssey, said study author David Dreyer with Lund University in Sweden. 'It's remarkable that an animal with such a tiny brain can actually do this,' Dreyer said.
