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Wombat

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Template:Short description {{#invoke:other uses|otheruses}} Template:Pp-vandalism Template:Use Australian English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Automatic taxobox

Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials of the family Vombatidae that are native to Australia. Living species are about Template:Convert in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between Template:Convert. They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of southern and eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as an isolated patch of about Template:Convert in Epping Forest National Park<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in central Queensland.

EtymologyEdit

The name "wombat" comes from the now nearly extinct Dharug language spoken by the aboriginal Dharug people, who originally inhabited the Sydney area.<ref name="Butler">Template:Cite book</ref> It was first recorded in January 1798, when John Price and James Wilson, Europeans who had adopted aboriginal ways, visited the area of what is now Bargo, New South Wales. Price wrote: "We saw several sorts of dung of different animals, one of which Wilson called a 'Whom-batt', which is an animal about Template:Convert high, with short legs and a thick body with a large head, round ears, and very small eyes; is very fat, and has much the appearance of a badger."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Wombats were often called badgers by early settlers because of their size and habits. Because of this, localities such as Badger Creek, Victoria, and Badger Corner, Tasmania, were named after the wombat.<ref name = "b">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The spelling went through many variants over the years, including "wambat", "whombat", "womat", "wombach", and "womback", possibly reflecting dialectal differences in the Darug language.<ref name="Butler" />

Evolution and taxonomyEdit

Though genetic studies of the Vombatidae have been undertaken, evolution of the family is not well understood. Wombats are estimated to have diverged from other Australian marsupials relatively early, as long as 40 million years ago, while some estimates place divergence at around 25 million years.<ref name="Triggs2009">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Some prehistoric wombat genera greatly exceeded modern wombats in size. The largest known wombat, Phascolonus, which went extinct approximately 40,000 years ago,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> is estimated to have had a body mass of up to Template:Convert.<ref name="Louys">Template:Cite journal</ref>

CharacteristicsEdit

File:Wombat-Narawntapu.jpg
Tasmanian wombat in Narawntapu National Park, Tasmania

Wombats dig extensive burrow systems with their rodent-like front teeth and powerful claws. One distinctive adaptation of wombats is their backward pouch. The advantage of a backward-facing pouch is that when digging, the wombat does not gather soil in its pouch over its young. Although mainly crepuscular and nocturnal, wombats may 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.

Wombats leave distinctive cubic faeces.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> As wombats arrange these feces to mark territories and attract mates, it is believed that the cubic shape makes them more stackable and less likely to roll, which gives this shape a biological advantage. The method by which the wombat produces them is not well understood, but it is believed that the wombat intestine stretches preferentially at the walls, with two flexible and two stiff areas around its intestines.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The adult wombat produces between 80 and 100, Template:Convert pieces of feces in a single night, and four to eight pieces each bowel movement.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2019 the production of cube-shaped wombat feces was the subject of the Ig Nobel Prize for Physics, won by Patricia Yang and David Hu.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

File:Certified Wombat Faeces.jpg
Wombat cubic scat, found near Cradle Mountain in Tasmania

All wombat teeth lack roots and are ever-growing, like the incisors of rodents.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Wombats are herbivores;<ref>Template:Cite journal </ref><ref>Template:Cite journal </ref><ref>Template:Cite journal </ref> their diets consist mostly of grasses, sedges, herbs, bark, and roots. Their incisor teeth somewhat resemble those of rodents (rats, mice, etc.), being adapted for gnawing tough vegetation. Like many other herbivorous mammals, they have a large diastema between their incisors and the cheek teeth, which are relatively simple. The dental formula of wombats is Template:DentalFormula.

Wombats' fur can vary from a sandy colour to brown, or from grey to black. All three known extant species average around Template:Convert in length and weigh between Template:Convert.

Male wombats have penile spines, a non-pendulous scrotum, and three pairs of bulbourethral glands. The testes, prostate, and bulbourethral glands enlarge during the breeding season.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Female wombats give birth to a single young after a gestation period of roughly 20–30 days, which varies between species.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> All species have well-developed pouches, which the young leave after about six to seven months. Wombats are weaned after 15 months, and are sexually mature at 18 months.<ref name=EoM>Template:Cite book</ref>

A group of wombats is known as a wisdom,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> a mob, or a colony.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Wombats typically live up to 15 years in the wild, but can live past 20 and even 30 years in captivity.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=ballarat>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The longest-lived captive wombat lived to 34 years of age.<ref name=ballarat/>

In 2020, biologists discovered that wombats, like many other Australian marsupials, display bio-fluorescence under ultraviolet light.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

  • Animaldentition vombatusursinus.png

    Dentition, as illustrated in Knight's Sketches in Natural History

  • Wombatskelett brehm.png

    Wombat skeleton

  • Image from page 504 of "Biology of the vertebrates - a comparative study of man and his animal allies" (1949) (19763119883).jpg

    Female reproductive tract

Ecology and behaviourEdit

File:Wombat burrow-Narawntapu.JPG
Wombat burrow and scat, Narawntapu National Park, Tasmania

Wombats have an extraordinarily slow metabolism, taking around 8 to 14 days to complete digestion, which aids their survival in arid conditions.<ref name=EoM/> They generally move slowly.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Wombats defend home territories centred on their burrows, and they react aggressively to intruders. The common wombat occupies a range of up to Template:Convert, while the hairy-nosed species have much smaller ranges, of no more than Template:Convert.<ref name=EoM/>

Dingos and Tasmanian devils prey on wombats. Extinct predators were likely to have included Thylacoleo and possibly the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger). Their primary defence is their 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 rumps to block a pursuing attacker.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to an urban legend, wombats sometimes allow an intruder to force its head over the wombat's back, and then use its powerful legs to crush the skull of the predator against the roof of the tunnel. However, there is no evidence to support this.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Wombats are generally quiet animals. Bare-nosed wombats can make a number of different sounds, more than the hairy-nosed wombats. Wombats tend to be more vocal during mating season. When angered, they can make hissing sounds. Their call sounds somewhat like a pig's squeal. They can also make grunting noises, a low growl, a hoarse cough, and a clicking noise.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

SpeciesEdit

The three extant species of wombat<ref name=msw3/> are all endemic to Australia and a few offshore islands. They are protected under Australian law.<ref name="gum">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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Human relationsEdit

HistoryEdit

Depictions of the animals in rock art are exceptionally rare, though examples estimated to be up to 4,000 years old have been discovered in Wollemi National Park.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The wombat is depicted in aboriginal Dreamtime as an animal of little worth. The mainland stories tell of the wombat as originating from a person named Warreen whose head had been flattened by a stone and tail amputated as punishment for selfishness. In contrast, the Tasmanian aboriginal story first recorded in 1830 tells of the wombat (known as the drogedy or publedina) the great spirit Moihernee had asked hunters to leave alone. In both cases, the wombat is regarded as having been banished to its burrowing habitat.<ref name="Woodford2012">Template:Cite book</ref> Estimates of wombat distribution prior to European settlement are that numbers of all three surviving species were prolific and that they covered a range more than ten times greater than that of today.<ref name="Triggs2009"/>

File:A235, Ballarat Wildlife Park, Ballarat, Australia, wombats, 2007.JPG
Common wombat and joey eating from a bowl at a zoo

After the ship Sydney Cove ran aground on Clarke Island in February 1797, the crew of the salvage ship Francis discovered wombats on the island.<ref name=vombatidae>Template:Cite book</ref> A live animal was taken back to Port Jackson.<ref name=vombatidae/> Matthew Flinders, who was travelling on board the Francis on its third and final salvage trip, also decided to take a wombat specimen from the island to Port Jackson. Governor John Hunter later sent the animal's corpse to Joseph Banks at the Literary and Philosophical Society<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to verify that it was a new species. The island was named Clarke Island after William Clark.<ref name=monograph>Nash, M. "Maritime Archaeology Monograph and Reports Series No.2 – Investigation of a Survivors Camp from the Sydney Cove Shipwreck Template:Webarchive." Master of Maritime Archaeology Thesis. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, South Australia. 2004. Accessed 30 December 2009.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Wombats were classified as vermin in 1906, and a bounty was introduced in 1925.<ref name="Triggs2009"/>Template:Rp This and the removal of a substantial amount of habitat have greatly reduced their numbers and range.<ref> Template:Cite journal</ref>

Attacks on humansEdit

In addition to being bitten, humans can receive puncture wounds from wombat claws. Startled wombats can also charge humans and bowl them over,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> with the attendant risks of broken bones from the fall. One naturalist, Harry Frauca, once received a bite Template:Convert deep into the flesh of his leg—through a rubber boot, trousers and thick woollen socks.<ref name="Underhill">Template:Cite book</ref> A UK newspaper, The Independent, reported that on 6 April 2010, a 59-year-old man from rural Victoria state was mauled by a wombat (thought to have been angered by mange),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> causing a number of cuts and bite marks requiring hospital treatment. He resorted to killing it with an axe.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Cultural significanceEdit

Some farmers consider common wombats to be a nuisance due primarily to their burrowing behaviour. "Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat" was the tongue-in-cheek "unofficial" mascot of the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Since 2005, an unofficial holiday called Wombat Day has been observed on 22 October.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Wombat meat has been a source of bush food from the arrival of Aboriginal Australians to the arrival of Europeans. Due to the protection of the species, wombat meat as food is no longer part of mainstream Australian cuisine, but wombat stew was once one of the few truly Australian dishes.<ref>'International Recipes from Balmain'. The Canberra Times. Monday 19 December 1977. pg 10</ref> In the 20th century, the more easily found rabbit meat was more commonly used. (Rabbits are now considered an invasive pest in Australia.) The name of the dish is also used by a popular children's book and musical.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Wombats have featured in Australian postage stamps and coins. The hairy-nosed wombats have featured mainly to highlight their elevated conservation status. The northern hairy-nosed wombat featured on an Australian 1974 20-cent stamp and also an Australian 1981 five-cent stamp. The common wombat has appeared on a 1987 37-cent stamp and an Australian 1996 95-cent stamp. The 2006 Australian Bush Babies stamp series features an AU$1.75-stamp of a baby common wombat, and the 2010 Rescue to Release series features a 60-cent stamp of a common wombat being treated by a veterinarian. Wombats are rarely seen on circulated Australian coins, an exception is a 50-cent coin which also shows a koala and lorikeet. The common wombat appeared on a 2005 commemorative $1 coin and the northern hairy-nosed wombat on a 1998 Australia Silver Proof $10 coin.<ref name="BlueSheet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Many places in Australia have been named after the wombat, including a large number of places where they are now locally extinct in the wild. References to the locally extinct common wombat can be found in parts of the Central Highlands of Victoria, for example the Wombat State Forest and Wombat Hill in Daylesford. Other significant places named after the wombat includes the town of Wombat, New South Wales and the suburb of Quoiba, Tasmania. Numerous less significant Australian places, including hotels, are named after the animals. Prominent sculptures of wombats include in South Australia: "The Big Wombat" at Scotdesco Aboriginal Community (Tjilkaba) and Wudinna visitor information centre, Adelaide Zoo and Norwood; New South Wales: Wombat, New South Wales; Victoria: Daylesford, Trentham, Victoria and Kinglake; Tasmania: Steppes State Reserve.

Wombats have also been a feature of Australian television. While wombats are not generally kept as pets, a notable depiction of a common wombat as a pet is Fatso from the Australian television show A Country Practice. The Brisbane television show Wombat was also named for the animals.

Australian literature contains many references to the wombat. Examples are Mr. Walter Wombat from the adventures of Blinky Bill and one of the main antagonists in The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay.

ConservationEdit

All species of wombats are protected in every Australian state.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The northern hairy-nosed wombat is a critically endangered species under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992, the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.<ref name="QG">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The biggest threats the species faces are its small population size, predation by wild dogs, competition for food because of overgrazing by cattle and sheep, and disease.<ref name=QG/> The only known wild populations of this species exist in two locations in Queensland, the Epping Forest National Park, and a smaller colony being established by translocating wombats to the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge at Yarran Downs.<ref name=QG/> This second colony is being created through the Xstrata reintroduction project, which is being funded by Xstrata, a Swiss global mining company.<ref name = "Time ">Template:Cite magazine</ref> From a low of just 35 wombats across the state when surveyed in the 1980s, the population had increased to a total of around 315 by May 2021.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Despite its name, the common wombat is no longer as common as it once was, and is under significant threat.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> However, in eastern Victoria, they are not protected, and they are considered by some to be pests, especially due to the damage they cause to rabbit-proof fences.<ref name=QG/><ref name="Tas Parks">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Opportunistic research studies have been conducted on the immune system of common wombats, which could be used as a tool for future conservation efforts.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

WomSAT, a citizen science project, was established in 2016 to record sightings of wombats across the country.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref> Template:Cite journal</ref> The website and mobile phone app can be used to log sightings of live or deceased wombats and wombat burrows. Since its establishment the project has recorded over 23,000 sightings across New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> More recently, the citizen science project has published findings on wombat roadkill<ref> Template:Cite journal</ref> and sarcoptic mange incidence<ref> Template:Cite journal</ref> across Australia.

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Further readingEdit

  • Will Cuppy, How to Attract the Wombat, with illustrations by Ed Nofziger, David R. Godiine, 2002, Template:ISBN (Originally published 1949, Rhinehart).
  • Jackie French, The Secret World of Wombats, with illustrations by Bruce Whatley, Harper Collins Publishers, 2005, Template:ISBN.
  • Jackie French, Christmas Wombat, with illustrations by Bruce Whatley, Clarion Books, 2012, Template:ISBN.
  • Barbara Triggs, Wombats, Houghton Mifflin Australia Pty, 1990, Template:ISBN. Facts and photographs of wombats for children.
  • Barbara Triggs, The Wombat: Common Wombats in Australia, University of New South Wales Press, 1996, Template:ISBN.
  • James Woodford, The Secret Life of Wombats, Text Publishing, 2002, Template:ISBN.

External linksEdit

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Template:Diprotodontia Template:Vombatiformes Template:Taxonbar Template:Authority control

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