Female numbat in Brookton, Western Australia, Australia

© Martin Willis/Minden Picture

It's World Numbat Day!. World Numbat Day

OK, you might be asking: World What Day? Meet the nifty numbat! Though it's one of many marsupials found here in Western Australia, the numbat is unique, sharing no relation to any living species. But it's also critically endangered: This little fella is one of fewer than 1,000 of its kind left in the wild.

Numbats behave a bit like Africa's meerkats or North America's prairie dogs, often standing on hind legs to furtively scan the surroundings for predators or hiding out in hollow logs or burrows. They've always got an eye to the ground, too, searching for nests of their favourite snack: tasty termites. A single numbat often slurps up 20,000 termites a day with its long, sticky tongue, something homeowners in Western Australia surely appreciate.