Eastern Striped Bandicoot
Encyclopedia
The Eastern Striped Bandicoot (Microperoryctes ornata) is a species of marsupial
Marsupial
Marsupials are an infraclass of mammals, characterized by giving birth to relatively undeveloped young. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands, with the remaining 100 found in the Americas, primarily in South America, but with thirteen in Central...

 in the Peramelidae
Peramelidae
Peramelidae is the family of marsupials that contains all of the extant bandicoots. One known extinct species of bandicoot, the Pig-footed Bandicoot, was so different than the other species that it was recently moved into its own family. There are four described fossil Peramelids...

 family. It is found in eastern Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 in the Enga Province
Enga Province
Enga refers to both an ethnic group located in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and the province in which they are the majority ethnic group.-Physical geography:...

. It is endemic to mountain forested habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

s ranging from 1,000 – 3,600 m in elevation
Elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

. The Eastern Striped Bandicoot is a terrestrial
Terrestrial animal
Terrestrial animals are animals that live predominantly or entirely on land , as compared with aquatic animals, which live predominantly or entirely in the water , or amphibians, which rely on a combination of aquatic and terrestrial habitats...

 omnivore
Omnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...

.

It was previously listed as a subspecies
Subspecies
Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of Microperoryctes longicauda.

Description

The Eastern Striped Bandicoot has a tail
Tail
The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, reptiles, and birds...

length is from 17.4 cm to 19.8 cm.
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