THE cute factor has been pushed into overdrive with a mother duck and her ducklings joined in their nest by a baby bandicoot.
Bouvard resident Rex discovered the strange animal pairing at his property last week when he was checking on his pet duck’s eggs.
“I went to check on the eggs and a little bandicoot had made its way underneath,” he said.
“I thought 'what are you doing there?'”
He said the eggs soon hatched but the bandicoot didn’t leave.
“The mother duck hasn’t taken offence to the little fella,” he said.
“The duck was more concerned to just get back on her eggs after I picked her up.”
Rex said he regularly sees bandicoots on his property as they came in to eat his chicken’s feed each night but a bandicoot nesting with a duck was a first.
“I wasn’t that surprised, I’ve seen a lot of strange things in nature over my time,” he said.
“I’ve seen a kangaroo fornicate with an emu; I’ve seen an eagle fly down and pick up a snake then drop it and then fly back down to get it.”
However for the baby bandicoot to still be healthy Rex believed the mother bandicoot must have been coming to check on her young.
“The baby bandicoot left for a short time but was back later in the [same] day,” he said.
“It’s been there for five days now.
“If it was by itself it would have been picked up by a magpie or something but it’s sought refuge under the duck.”
