The bandicoots in the family peramelidae are a rabbit-sized marsupial quadruped found throughout Australia. They have pointed ears and tapering snouts, and the same foot structure as wallabies and kangaroos. Their hind legs and feet are enlarged and carry most of their weight. They generally have non-prehensile thin, long rat-like tails. They have light to dark brown fur, and some have bars of lighter shades across their backs. The bandicoot is ground-living. It finds most of its food by digging conical shapes in the ground and locating insects, tubers, roots and other plants with their heightened sense of smell and their whiskers. The bandicoot is nocturnal. It lives in woodlands, sclerophyll forest, grasslands and rainforest. The adults tend to be solitary, and aggressively territorial - though the bilby has a strict dominance hierarchy.. Both sexes vocalise with yaps, squeaks, barks, grunts, hisses and snuffling noises.Bandicoot is the gentle shadow. It is a solitary creature, intimate with the shadows, excavating burrows for food and gently negotiating its way through heath and sand and earth. Bandicoot teaches us the safety and security that is to be found in the darkness and the shadow, and is a great guide for those who are currently in a dark part of their lives who need some respite from what might seem an endless, shadowy, tumult. Bandicoot can also aid those who are scared of the dark. Sand is both menial and trivial, yet it is the stuff that makes mountains. We walk on it, it gets in our hair, it makes up the structures that often house us. It is in manipulated forms a shelter and a part of our lives. Yet so often we just sweep it off the porch without a second thought, or for those of us who live in countries with little sand, we rarely think of it at all. Bandicoot teaches us sand knowledge and sand magic. There are gems of wisdom that can nourish us from within what might seem the barrenness of sand, and bandicoot can help guide us to discover what this wisdom is. Bandicoot helps us to release ties with kin that are negative and unhealthy. Alongside kinship relations, bandicoot teaches us the power of dominance and hierarchy. Do you know where you stand with your friends, family and partner? If not, why not? Find out! Bandicoot tells us to step up quick smart and find out our place with the people around us. We know how to maintain our own boundaries, if we know where our boundaries stand with others. As bandicoot shares lessons of the earth and ground, it also shares guidance on issues of inner stability. We need to find our own earth paths in life that are stable, solid and supportive. Bandicoot teaches us that we can't live a healthy path if every path we walk is unstable. We must look within and without for paths and parts of our life that are stable and grounded. Bandicoot teaches us how to be grounded and aggressive at the same time, so that our aggression comes from a place which is true to us, and doesn't let us 'fly off the handle.' If you are in a time of your life which is so frustrating that you are snapping and angry at everyone, it might be time to listen to what bandicoot has to say, and to control your aggression.
Bandicoot teaches us that one of the most successful ways we can understand the ancient earth is by living a quiet existence, especially amongst times of noise and trauma. Bandicoot comes in our lives to quietly nuzzle our shoulder and point out a little shadowy, sandy track that we missed, and to not neglect it simply because it looks quiet and uninteresting. Like bandicoot, sometimes the quietest places are where we find the most nourishment. (Wildspeak.com)
