immunity to the hypothetical epizootic. An ethnographic survey of Aboriginal informants from central Australia in 1988 found the animal has not been seen in southern regions for around 70 years, but had persisted in the central desert regions until 30–50 years earlier. Behaviour and ecology Few naturalists had the opportunity to observe and document the behaviour of the two species, with one of the few existing accounts suggesting that it moved "like a broken-down hack in a canter, apparently dragging the hind quarters after it". This is contradicted by the Aboriginal people of central Australia, who knew it well and reported that if disturbed, it was capable of running with considerable speed by breaking into a smooth, galloping sprint. Chaeropus species moved with a distinctive gait, exaggerated by their proportionally long and slender limbs that resemble a large grazing mammal like the African antelope. Each forelimb had two functional toes and the rear limb ending in a hoof-like toe, with an apparent advantage when used to quickly evade a perceived threat. They were solitary, nocturnal animals that would sleep in their shelter during the day and emerge in the evening to feed, using their keen sense of smell to find food. Depending on the habitat, pig-footed bandicoots used a variety of shelters to hide from predators and for sleeping. John Gilbert found a nest site near Northam, Western Australia, that he described as greatly resembling those made by quenda and marl, but with more leaves. In wooded areas and grasslands, these ranged from hollow logs to nests made out of grass, while in arid, treeless country, this animal dug short, straight burrows with a nest at the end. From surviving eyewitness reports and analyses of gut contents, dentition, and gut structure of museum specimens, pig-footed bandicoots apparently were the most herbivorous of the peramelemorphs; analysis based on dental morphology and tooth wear are consistent with a predominately plant-based diet. Captive specimens were fond of meat, and Aborigines reported that they ate grasshoppers, ants, and termites, the bulk of their diet was almost certainly leaves, roots, and grasses. In captivity, they drank "a good deal of water". Tim Flannery suggests that breeding occurred between May and June and that twins may have been the norm for this species. From the size of its pouch and comparison with other marsupials of this size, pig-footed bandicoots likely did not carry more than four