Let’s continue our journey by talking about the koala’s closest relative, which I mentioned in the previous article and now dedicate an entire page to: the wombat!
We are talking about a nocturnal, herbivorous marsupial (Don’t know what a marsupial is? That’s bad, you haven’t read the previous article, but you’re lucky, you can find it here), endemic to Australia, living in forests, mountains, and prairies.
Its legs are short but strong and equipped with sturdy claws for digging burrows, which can be up to 4 meters deep and consist of more than 100 meters of tunnels. Males are generally solitary, while females gather in small groups in the same burrows.
An incredible adaptation to their digging life is the backward-opening pouch, so they don’t throw dirt inside while digging.
Actually, all the most distinctive features of wombats concern their back.
Their best defense is a hard cartilaginous plate located on their rear, making it difficult for predators like dingoes to attack and bite.
Then perhaps some of you have heard of the famous cube-shaped poop: wombats are very territorial animals and mark their area with urine and feces.
The long digestion process, which can last 14-18 days (not hours, days!), allows them to retain all possible nutrients and water, making their droppings dry and compact.
Why this peculiar shape? Since their tunnels make the ground particularly uneven, the advantage of being cubic is that they are more stable and therefore more effective for marking territory compared to a rounder shape that could easily roll away.
There are three species of wombats:
The bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus), found in southern Australia.
The southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons), the smallest of the three species, living in the semi-arid regions of eastern Australia.
The northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii), critically endangered.
Now I would like to tell you a story about this last species.
We are talking about one of the most endangered mammals in the world. Through the analysis of fossil evidence, scientists noticed that the northern hairy-nosed wombat was originally distributed in various sites between Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland.
After the arrival of Europeans at the end of the 1700s and the introduction of new animals, especially livestock such as cattle, sheep, and rabbits, which were not previously found in Australia, the wombat population began to decline due to strong competition with these animals for the same food resources.
If we also consider habitat loss, drought, wildfires, and naturally individuals killed by predators, the situation got worse to the point that by the 1970s there was only one population left of about 35 wombats in a single site in central Queensland.
In 1971, the Epping Forest National Park was established at that precise site, an area of nearly 3000 hectares, inaccessible to the public, where entry is reserved only for scientific staff to allow for minimal disturbance and maximum effectiveness in conserving this species.
In the early 1980s, a fence was built to prevent other herbivores from grazing inside the park, thus eliminating the primary cause, and indeed the numbers began to slowly increase.
However, this measure was not predator-proof, and the population continued to decline due to attacks from dingoes and other carnivores.
In 2002, the fence was modified and reinforced, and since then the population finally began to grow significantly.
After extensive research, in 2009 scientists established another site suitable for the characteristics of our wombat: the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge was created, a 130 hectares area of eucalypt forests near the town of St. George in southern Queensland.
Fifteen wombats were moved from Epping Forest to here, and today the management of this area is entrusted to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, one of the largest organizations for the conservation of Australian wildlife, in agreement with the Queensland Department of Environment, Science, and Innovation.
Creating two populations in two different sites reduces the likelihood of extinction due to localized events such as fires, floods, and diseases.
In the last census of 2022, the two populations counted about 400 individuals, a very encouraging number but not yet sufficient to be out of danger.
In June 2024, another 15 wombats were moved to a third site, Powrunna State Forest, also in southern Queensland.
The project plans to introduce 60 wombats from Epping Forest to Powrunna by 2025 to ensure greater stability for this new population.
A coordinated effort between institutions, expert scientists and non-profit organizations, such as The Wombat Foundation, involving research, problem analysis, and targeted solutions, is proving very effective for the future of this species. For further insights, go read the project website.
In the end, wombats are teaching us a great truth: even if they are rear-ly good at defending themselves, they also need a big effort and commitment for conservation.
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