Researchers use peanut butter bacon balls for endangered marsupials

September 27, 2024 6:47 AM

Peanut butter bacon balls could be the best hope for these tiny endangered marsupials. When researchers aren't in the field, they roll "hundreds and hundreds" of bait balls with the secret ingredient of bacon to lure the endangered marsupial into traps.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (9 comments total)

Bacon is not a secret ingredient when it comes to luring any creature into a trap. I myself have gnawed of two limbs after bacon was involved. Don't fact check this; it's an emotional truth not a literal one.
posted by hippybear at 6:56 AM on September 27 [6 favorites]

This is the way the manna from heaven story got started
posted by Lookinguppy at 7:08 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]

I learned from the photos that Julia Creek dunnarta are very fierce, and should I meet one, I should immediately drop any peanut butter and/or bacon I am carrying and back away.

They are also adorable.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:09 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]

The official snack of Graceland.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 7:17 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]

Pro Tip: If you're ever traveling in Australia and you find a peanut butter bacon ball on the ground, do not think, "Hey, free peanut butter bacon ball" and pop it in your mouth. I woke up two days later bouncing around in a strange pouch with a tag on my earlobe.
posted by PlusDistance at 7:27 AM on September 27 [8 favorites]

Surely deep-fried peanut butter bacon balls on a stick are a staple of county fairs.
posted by SPrintF at 8:20 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]

Well, you could absolutely lure *me* with a peanut butter bacon ball.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:26 AM on September 27 [2 favorites]

I'm an endangered marsupial, I swear!
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:03 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]

I would fight a dunnart for a bacon peanut butter ball, except the dunnart would win, because they are so lil' and fierce. I would be like, "Oh, sooooo cute, give kisses and skritches! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" And then there would be blood, no bacon peanut butter, and much sadness.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:10 AM on September 27 [1 favorite]