wombat

[Dharuk wambad.]

(click to enlarge)
Common wombat (Vombatus ursinus). (credit: Warren Garst-Tom Stack and Associates)

Either of two species (family Vombatidae) of nocturnal Australian marsupials that are heavily built, 28 – 47 in. (70 – 120 cm) long, and tailless. The single newborn develops in the mother's pouch for about five months. Wombats eat grasses, tree bark, and shrub roots. They make a grassy nest at the end of a long burrow. The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) of southeastern Australia and Tasmania, considered a pest, has coarse dark hair and short ears. The rare Queensland hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus barnardi) has fine fur and longer ears; protected by law, the population lives principally in a national park.

For more information on wombat, visit Britannica.com.

(Vombatidae)

Class: Mammalia

Order: Diprotodontia

Suborder: Vombatiformes

Family: Vombatidae

Thumbnail description
Wombats are large burrowing herbivores, stocky with a broad massive head and short powerful limbs; the ears are small and the tail insignificant.

Size
39.4 in (1.0 m); 55–88 lb (25–40 kg)

Number of genera, species
2 genera; 3 species

Habitat
Woodlands

Conservation status
Critically Endangered: 1 species

Distribution
Southeastern Australia

Evolution and systematics

There are only three living species of wombats, but the family was more diverse in the Pleistocene (between about two million years ago [mya] and 10,000 years ago), when it was represented by a total of six genera and nine species. Some of the extinct species were much larger than the living species. Phascalonus gigas, for example, had a skull 16 in (40 cm) in length and may have stood about 39.4 in (1 m) high and weighed 441 lb (200 kg).

Whether these giant wombats dug burrows is unknown; they do not seem to have been as well-adapted for burrowing as their living relatives, and may only have dug short burrows for resting. The earliest fossil wombats are of early Miocene age. Wombats arose from the same stock that produced the kangaroos and possums, and their closest living relative is the koala.

Physical characteristics

The three living species of wombats are similar in size, and all have the same stocky body form. The two hairy-nosed wombats (Lasiorhinus) differ from the common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) in having a hairy covering over the rhinarium. They also have longer pointed ears and finer fur. The hairy-nosed wombats are silver-gray, but the common wombat varies in color from pale gray to rich brown. Males and females are similar in appearance.

The skeletal characters of wombats are well-suited for digging. In particular, the pectoral girdle is heavy and strong and the humerus is broad and massive. This makes the fore-arms very powerful, and the forepaws are broad and have strong claws.

Distribution

Wombats occur in southeastern Australia, and are reasonably widespread in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia. The northern hairy-nosed wombat (L. krefftii) is found just to the north of the tropic of Capricorn, and the southern hairy-nosed wombat (L. latifrons) has isolated populations in Western Australia.

Habitat

The two species of hairy-nosed wombats live in open woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands in semi-arid habitats, and the southern hairy-nosed wombat extends into arid regions on the Nullarbor Plain. The common wombat lives in forests and woodlands in areas of higher rainfall.

Behavior

Wombats dig by scratching with the forepaws and flinging soil behind them; the piled-up soil is then bulldozed clear of the burrow as the animal backs out of the entrance. Wombat burrows can be huge. They may consist of 98 ft (30 m) or more of tunnel length, and have several entrances as well as side tunnels and resting chambers. Warrens of the southern hairy-nosed wombat are particularly complex, and probably the same warren is used and expanded by many generations of wombats. The tunnels are wide enough to accommodate a lightly built adult human (no reasonable person would ever risk crawling down a wombat burrow, but a 15 year old boy explored many burrows of the common wombat in 1960 and wrote up his observations in a now-famous article in his school magazine).

Individuals usually feed alone, but in the southern hairy-nosed wombat many animals may share the same warren. Similarly, in the northern hairy-nosed wombat burrows occur in clusters, and a group of up to 12 wombats makes common use of each cluster of burrows. However, even when two individuals use the same burrow it seems that they occupy different sections of it. There is good evidence indicating that both the female northern hairy-nosed wombat and the female common wombat are more likely to disperse from their home burrow at some stage of their lives, while the males are more philopatric. This is unusual—in most mammals dispersal is male-biased. This suggests that the groups of individuals that occupy burrow clusters in the northern hairy-nosed wombat are composed of related males and unrelated females. It is still not known at what age females disperse in the common wombat, but in the northern hairy-nosed wombat dispersal has been observed by breeding adult females.

Feeding ecology and diet

Wombats are specialized grazers. They have open-rooted teeth that grow throughout life, compensating for tooth wear caused by eating abrasive grasses. The jaws are massive, and deliver powerful, short chewing strokes that reduce their fibrous food to small particles. Gut capacity is large, and the colon is expanded to house cellulose-digesting microorganisms. Food is held in the gut for long periods (70 hours or so) to maximize the breakdown of fiber.

Wombats feed mainly at night, and rest deep in their burrows during the day. Their burrows provide them with refuge from such predators as dingoes and also with protection from extreme temperatures and dry conditions. Wombats have low basal metabolic rates; this, together with the slow rate of passage of food through the gut and the efficiency with which they digest their food, means that they spend less time feeding than other grazers of their body size and they can afford to spend most of their time in their burrows. Their home ranges are small for a herbivore of their body size, typically less than 49 acres (20 ha).

Reproductive biology

The single young is born after a gestation of about 22 days, and stays in the pouch for six to nine months. It remains dependent on its mother for at least a year after leaving the pouch. Wombats have backward-opening pouches. There is no evidence of pair-bonding and there is presumably competition among males for the opportunity to mate with females, but no details of this are known.

Conservation status

The common wombat and southern hairy-nosed wombat are secure, although the ranges of both species have contracted and fragmented since European settlement. The northern hairy-nosed wombat is extremely rare. It has only been recorded in historic times from three localities, and is extinct from two of these as of the early twentieth century. Probably, the major cause of its decline was competition for pasture from sheep and cattle. The remaining population is protected within Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland. In 2000 the size of this last population was estimated to be 116 individuals. This species is classed as endangered under Queensland State legislation and Australian Federal legislation.

Significance to humans

Wombats do not feature strongly in Aboriginal mythology. The southern hairy-nosed wombat and common wombat are sometimes regarded as pests of agriculture, because of the damage they cause to crops and fences. None of the species has commercial value. By and large, however, wombats are regarded with deep affection in Australia. They feature in many children's stories, beginning with Ruth Park's classic Muddle-Headed Wombat series from the 1960s. There was also a vogue for wombats in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. The painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti regarded them as "the most beautiful of God's creatures;" when one of his two pet wombats died in 1869 he commemorated it with a touching drawing entitled Self-portrait of the artist weeping at the wombat's tomb.

Species accounts

Resources

Long, J., M. Archer, T. Flannery, and S. Hand. Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2002.

Wells, R. T., and P. A. Pridmore. Wombats. Sydney: Surrey Beatty & Sons, 1998.

Woodford, J. The Secret Life of Wombats. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2001.

Banks, S. C., L. F. Skerratt, and A. C. Taylor. "Female dispersal and relatedness structure in common wombats (Vombatus ursinus)." Journal of Zoology 256 (2002): 389–399.

[Article by: Christopher Johnson, PhD]

A thickset, nocturnal, herbivorous, burrowing marsupial with short legs and no tail. It is solitary and long-lived and peculiar to Australia. Called also Vombatus ursinus.

For other uses, see Wombat (disambiguation).

Wombats[1] Fossil range: Pleistocene to Recent
Common Wombat in the snow
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Marsupialia
Order:	Diprotodontia
Suborder:	Vombatiformes
Family:	Vombatidae Burnett, 1829
Genera and Species
Vombatus Vombatus ursinus Lasiorhinus Lasiorhinus latifrons Lasiorhinus krefftii †Rhizophascolomus †Phascolonus †Warendja †Ramasayia

Wombats are Australian marsupials; they are short-legged, muscular quadrupeds, approximately 1 metre (39 in) in length with a very short tail. They are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. The name wombat comes from the Eora Aboriginal community who were the original inhabitants of the Sydney area.

Contents 1 Characteristics 1.1 Ecology and behaviour 2 Species 3 Wombats and humans 4 Further reading 5 References 6 External links

Characteristics

Wombats dig extensive burrow systems with rodent-like front teeth and powerful claws. One distinctive adaptation of wombats is their backwards pouch. The advantage of a backwards-facing pouch is that when digging, the wombat does not gather dirt in its pouch over its young. Although mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, wombats will also venture out to feed on cool or overcast days. They are not commonly seen, but leave ample evidence of their passage, treating fences as minor inconveniences to be gone through or under, and leaving distinctive cubic faeces.

Wombat scat, found near Cradle Mountain in Tasmania

Wombats are herbivores; their diet consists mostly of grasses, sedges, herbs, bark and roots. Their incisor teeth somewhat resemble those of the placental rodents, being adapted for gnawing tough vegetation. Like many other herbivorous mammals, they have a large diastema between the incisors and the cheek teeth, which are relatively simple. The dental formula of wombats is: .

Wombats' fur colour can vary from a sandy colour to brown, or from grey to black. All three known extant species of wombats average around 1 m (39 in) in length and between 20 and 35 kg (44 and 77 lb) in weight.

Female wombats give birth to a single young in the spring, after a gestation period (which like all mammals can vary, in the case of the wombat: 20-22 days.^[2]) They have a well-developed pouch, which the young leave after about 6–7 months. Wombats are weaned after 15 months, and are sexually mature at 18 months of age.^[2]

Ecology and behaviour

Wombats have an extraordinarily slow metabolism, taking around 14 days to complete digestion, which aids their survival in arid conditions.^[2] They generally move slowly, and because of this are known for taking shortcuts, but when threatened they can reach up to 40 km/h (25 mph) and maintain that speed for up to 90 seconds.^[3] Wombats defend home territories centred on their burrows, and react aggressively to intruders. The Common Wombat occupies a range of up to 23 ha (57 acres), while the hairy-nosed species have much smaller ranges, of no more than 4 ha (9.9 acres).^[2]

Dingos and Tasmanian Devils prey on wombats. The wombat's primary defence is its toughened rear hide with most of the posterior made of cartilage. This, combined with its lack of a meaningful tail, makes it difficult for any predator that follows the wombat into its tunnel to bite and injure its target. When attacked, wombats dive into a nearby tunnel, using their rump to block a pursuing attacker.^[4] Wombats may allow an intruder to force its head over their back and then use its powerful legs to crush the skull of the predator against the roof of the tunnel, or drive it off with two-legged 'donkey' kicks.

Humans who accidentally find themselves in an affray with a wombat may find it best to scale a tree until the animal calms and leaves. Humans can receive puncture wounds from wombat claws as well as bites. Startled wombats can also charge humans and bowl them over, with the attendant risks of broken bones from the fall.

Species

There are three living species of wombat:^[1]

• Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
• Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat or Yaminon (Lasiorhinus krefftii)^[5][6]
• Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)

Wombats and humans

Wombats were often called badgers by early settlers because of their size and habit. Because of this, localities such as Badger Creek, Victoria and Badger Corner, Tasmania were named after the wombat.^[7]

The town Wombat, New South Wales, the asteroid 6827 Wombat, a soccer team in Brisbane, a U.S. Army Unit - Avionics Platoon, Bravo Company, 563d ASB, 159th CAB, 101st Airborne Division (AIR ASSAULT), and the British anti-tank rifle L6 Wombat (an acronym) are named after the animal.

They can be awkwardly tamed in a captive situation, and even coaxed into being patted and held, possibly becoming quite friendly. Many parks, zoos and other tourist set-ups across Australia have wombats on public display, and they are quite popular. However, their lack of fear means that they may display acts of aggression if provoked, or if they are simply in a bad mood. Its sheer weight makes a charging wild wombat capable of knocking an average-sized adult over, and their sharp teeth and powerful jaws can result in severe wounds. One naturalist, Harry Frauca, once received a bite 2 cm (0.79 in) deep into the flesh of his leg—through a rubber boot, trousers and thick woollen socks (Underhill, 1993).

Unlike most other Australian marsupials, the wombat has a relatively large brain. This, combined with strong instincts upon maturity, allows a captive hand-raised wombat to be easily released into the wild. Wombats are wide-ranging, foragers, nocturnal with strong instincts for burrowing behaviours. These characteristics make them unsuitable as pets.

Further reading

• Wombats, Barbara Triggs, Houghton Mifflin Australia Pty, 1990, ISBN 0-86770-114-5. Facts and photographs of wombats for children.
• The Wombat: Common Wombats in Australia, Barbara Triggs, University of New South Wales Press, 1996, ISBN 0-86840-263-X.
• The Secret Life of Wombats, James Woodford, Text Publishing, 2002, ISBN 1-877008-43-5.
• How to Attract the Wombat, Will Cuppy with illustrations by Ed Nofziger, David R. Godiine, 2002, ISBN 1-56792-156-6 (Originally published 1949, Rhinehart)
• The Secret World of Wombats, Jackie French with illustrations by Bruce Whatley, HarperCollins Publishers, 2005, ISBN 0-207-20031-9.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Groves, C. (2005). Wilson, D. E., & Reeder, D. M.. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 43–44. ISBN 0-801-88221-4. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} McIlroy, John (1984). Macdonald, D.. ed. The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 876–877. ISBN 0-87196-871-1. 
3. ^ http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/june2006/
4. ^ http://www.dpiw.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/webpages/bhan-53f7kj?open
5. ^ http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Lasiorhinus_krefftii.html
6. ^ http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/mammals/Lasiorhinus_krefftii/more_info.html
7. ^ Lady Wild Life, Common Wombat, http://ladywildlife.com/animals/commonwombat.html, retrieved 2008-09-01 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vombatidae

• South Australian Government Faunal Emblem (official website)
• Wombat information centre
• Rossetti's Wombat: A Pre-Raphaelite Obsession in Victorian England

v • d • e Extant Diprotodontia species Kingdom Animalia · Phylum Chordata · Class Mammalia · Infraclass Marsupialia   Suborder Vombatiformes Phascolarctidae Phascolarctos Koala (P. cinereus) Vombatidae (Wombats) Vombatus Common Wombat (V. ursinus) Lasiorhinus Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (L. latifrons) · Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat (L. krefftii)   Suborder Phalangeriformes (Possums) (cont. below) Phalangeridae (including Cuscuses) Ailurops (Bear cuscuses) Talaud Bear Cuscus (A. melanotis) · Sulawesi Bear Cuscus (A. ursinus) Phalanger Gebe Cuscus (P. alexandrae) · Mountain Cuscus (P. carmelitae) · Ground Cuscus (P. gymnotis) · Eastern Common Cuscus (P. intercastellanus) · Woodlark Cuscus (P. lullulae) · Blue-eyed Cuscus (P. matabiru) · Telefomin Cuscus (P. matanim) · Southern Common Cuscus (P. mimicus) · Northern Common Cuscus (P. orientalis) · Ornate Cuscus (P. ornatus) · Rothschild's Cuscus (P. rothschildi) · Silky Cuscus (P. sericeus) · Stein's Cuscus (P. vestitus) Spilocuscus Admiralty Island Cuscus (S. kraemeri) · Common Spotted Cuscus (S. maculatus) · Waigeou Cuscus (S. papuensis) · Black-spotted Cuscus (S. rufoniger) · Blue-eyed Spotted Cuscus (S. wilsoni) Strigocuscus Sulawesi Dwarf Cuscus (S. celebensis) · Banggai Cuscus (S. pelegensis) Trichosurus (Brushtail possums) Northern Brushtail Possum (T. arnhemensis) · Short-eared Possum (T. caninus) · Mountain Brushtail Possum (T. cunninghami) · Coppery Brushtail Possum (T. johnstonii) · Common Brushtail Possum (T. vulpecula) Wyulda Scaly-tailed Possum (W. squamicaudata) Burramyidae (Pygmy possums) Burramys Mountain Pygmy Possum (B. parvus) Cercartetus Long-tailed Pygmy Possum (C. caudatus) · Southwestern Pygmy Possum (C. concinnus) · Tasmanian Pygmy Possum (C. lepidus) · Eastern Pygmy Possum (C. nanus)   Suborder Phalangeriformes (Possums) (cont. above) Tarsipedidae Tarsipes Honey Possum (T. rostratus) Petauridae Dactylopsila Great-tailed Triok (D. megalura) · Long-fingered Triok (D. palpator) · Tate's Triok (D. tatei) · Striped Possum (D. trivirgata) Gymnobelideus Leadbeater's Possum (G. leadbeateri) Petaurus Northern Glider (P. abidi) · Yellow-bellied Glider (P. australis) · Biak Glider (P. biacensis) · Sugar Glider (P. breviceps) · Mahogany Glider (P. gracilis) · Squirrel Glider (P. norfolcensis) Pseudocheiridae Hemibelideus Lemur-like Ringtail Possum (H. lemuroides) Petauroides Greater Glider (P. volans) Petropseudes Rock-haunting Ringtail Possum (P. dahli) Pseudocheirus Common Ringtail Possum (P. peregrinus) Pseudochirulus Lowland Ringtail Possum (P. canescens) · Weyland Ringtail Possum (P. caroli) · Cinereus Ringtail Possum (P. cinereus) · Painted Ringtail Possum (P. forbesi) · Herbert River Ringtail Possum (P. herbertensis) · Masked Ringtail Possum (P. larvatus) · Pygmy Ringtail Possum (P. mayeri) · Vogelkop Ringtail Possum (P. schlegeli) Pseudochirops D'Albertis' Ringtail Possum (P. albertisii) · Green Ringtail Possum (P. archeri) · Plush-coated Ringtail Possum (P. corinnae) · Reclusive Ringtail Possum (P. coronatus) · Coppery Ringtail Possum (P. cupreus) Acrobatidae Acrobates Feathertail Glider (A. pygmaeus) Distoechurus Feather-tailed Possum (D. pennatus)   Suborder Macropodiformes (cont. below) Macropodidae (includes Wallabies) Lagostrophus Banded Hare-wallaby (L. fasciatus) Dendrolagus (Tree-kangaroos) Grizzled Tree-kangaroo (D. inustus) · Lumholtz's Tree-kangaroo (D. lumholtzi) · Bennett's Tree-kangaroo (D. bennettianus) · Ursine Tree-kangaroo (D. ursinus) · Matschie's Tree-kangaroo (D. matschiei) · Doria's Tree-kangaroo (D. dorianus) · Goodfellow's Tree-kangaroo (D. goodfellowi) · Lowlands Tree-kangaroo (D. spadix) · Golden-mantled Tree-kangaroo (D. pulcherrimus) · Seri's Tree-kangaroo (D. stellarum) · Dingiso (D. mbaiso) · Tenkile (D. scottae) Dorcopsis Brown Dorcopsis (D. muelleri) · White-striped Dorcopsis (D. hageni) · Black Dorcopsis (D. atrata) · Gray Dorcopsis (D. luctuosa) Dorcopsulus Small Dorcopsis (D. vanheurni) · Macleay's Dorcopsis (D. macleayi) Lagorchestes Spectacled Hare-wallaby (L. conspicillatus) · Rufous Hare-wallaby (L. hirsutus) Macropus (includes Kangaroos and Wallaroos) Subgenus Notamacropus: Agile Wallaby (M. agilis) · Black-striped Wallaby (M. dorsalis) · Tammar Wallaby (M. eugenii) · Western Brush Wallaby (M. irma) · Parma Wallaby (M. parma) · Pretty-faced Wallaby (M. parryi) · Red-necked Wallaby (M. rufogriseus) Subgenus Osphranter: Antilopine Kangaroo (M. antilopinus) · Woodward's Wallaroo (M. bernadus) · Eastern Wallaroo (M. robustus) · Red Kangaroo (M. rufus) Subgenus Macropus: Western Grey Kangaroo (M. fuliginosus) · Eastern Grey Kangaroo (M. giganteus) Onychogalea (Nail-tail wallabies) Bridled Nail-tail Wallaby (O. fraenata) · Northern Nail-tail Wallaby (O. unguifera) Petrogale (Rock-wallabies) P. brachyotis species-group: Short-eared Rock-wallaby (P. brachyotis) · Monjon (P. burbidgei) · Nabarlek (P. concinna) P. xanthopus species-group: Proserpine Rock-wallaby (P. persephone) · Rothschild's Rock-wallaby (P. rothschildi) · Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby (P. xanthopus) P. lateralis/penicillata species-group: Allied Rock-wallaby (P. assimilis) · Cape York Rock-wallaby (P. coenensis) · Godman's Rock-wallaby (P. godmani) · Herbert's Rock-wallaby (P. herberti) · Unadorned Rock-wallaby (P. inornata) · Black-flanked Rock-wallaby (P. lateralis) · Mareeba Rock-wallaby (P. mareeba) · Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby (P. penicillata) · Purple-necked Rock-wallaby (P. purpureicollis) · Mt. Claro Rock-wallaby (P. sharmani) Setonix Quokka (S. brachyurus) Thylogale (Pademelons) Tasmanian Pademelon (T. billardierii) · Brown's Pademelon (T. browni) · Dusky Pademelon (T. brunii) · Calaby's Pademelon (T. calabyi) · Mountain Pademelon (T. lanatus) · Red-legged Pademelon (T. stigmatica) · Red-necked Pademelon (T. thetis) Wallabia Swamp Wallaby (W. bicolor)   Suborder Macropodiformes (cont. above) Potoroidae Aepyprymnus Rufous Rat-kangaroo (A. rufescens) Bettongia (Bettongs) Eastern Bettong (B. gaimardi) · Boodie (B. lesueur) · Woylie (B. penicillata) · Northern Bettong (B. tropica) Potorous (Potoroos) Long-footed Potoroo (P. longipes) · Long-nosed Potoroo (P. tridactylus) · Gilbert's Potoroo (. gilbertii) Hypsiprymnodontidae Hypsiprymnodon Musky Rat-kangaroo (H. moschatus)

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - vombat

Nederlands (Dutch)
buideldier

Français (French)
n. - wombat, phascolome

Deutsch (German)
n. - (zo.) Wombat

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (ζωολ.) φασκωλόμυς

Italiano (Italian)
vombato

Português (Portuguese)
n. - vombate (m) (Zool.)

Русский (Russian)
вомбат (австралийское животное)

Español (Spanish)
n. - uombat, oso australiano

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - pungdjur (Austr.)

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
袋熊

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 袋熊

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 웜바트(오스트레일리아산의 유대 동물)

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - フクログマモドキ, ウォムバット, ウォムバットの毛皮

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الومبت أي حيوان من ذوات الجراب شبه بالدب‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮וומבט (חיית-כיס אוסטרלית)‬

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