Specimen C 5887 Taxidermied Mount - Pig-Footed Bandicoot, Murray & Darling Rivers Junction, 1857, Chaeropus ecaudatus ecaudatus Ogilby, 1838

Summary

Specimen in standing position, with anterior and posterior limbs retaining traces of internal armature wire that would have formed attachment to original base. Original stand and display labels now missing.

Collected during William Blandowski's Victorian government-sponsored expedition to the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers (December 1856 - December 1857), specifically during the eight months that the expedition was based at Mondellimin (Chaffey Landing at Merbein, near Mildura) from April-December 1857 (see the Historical Narrative). The precise locality and date of collection for this male specimen are not known. It is one of a series of eight specimens of Pig-footed Bandicoot from the expedition that were collected in a cooperative effort by the expedition naturalist Gerard Krefft and local teams of Aboriginal people (August-November 1857). All specimens came from the area around 'Gol Gol Creek and the Lower Darling' (New South Wales side of the Murray River), and were collected after Blandowski had left his field party in August 1857 and returned to Melbourne. The resulting skins and skeletons were shipped to the Public Museum then located at the University of Melbourne and headed by Frederick McCoy. In February 1858, Krefft was employed to sort the collection, and four skins were stuffed and mounted, with the taxidermy attributed to George Fulker, the museum taxidermist from 1854-1858. This specimen is scientifically important as one of the few surviving examples in museum collections of this now-extinct species.

Previous registration number 21638, Blandowski Catalogue number unknown.