Since arriving in Tasmania, I've learned quite a bit about Wombats*. The species that lives in Tasmania is the Common, or Bare-Nosed Wombat (Vombatus ursinus), a very stocky but incredibly cute creature that eats mostly grass. They are marsupials, so come equipped with the requisite pouch, but they are in many ways like rabbits - for example they have continuously growing (open rooted) teeth. They also remind me in some ways of marmots and badgers.
They have long claws for digging burrows, in fact, they are the largest burrowing herbivore. Because they dig so much, they have backwards pouches, so that the joeys don't get covered in dirt every time their mama starts digging - clever wombats. I got to see a pouch up close this past weekend, which I was very excited about! I had imagined pouches as squarish apron pocket-like structure, but that's really not at all how they are (at least in wombats), but rather more round. When not pregnant/lactating the pouch shrinks up so it is very small, and when occupied it expands, sort of like a uterus, which makes a lot of sense.
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| A Common Wombat grazing in Narawntapu National Park |
As you might imagine wombats would make a nice, juicy meal for many predators. When wombats are threatened they go halfway into their burrows, hang on tight with their incredibly muscular forearms to prevent themselves from getting dragged out. They have thick skin and a large cartilage plate across the top of their bum (yes that's a technical anatomy term), so if the predator bites on, they can crush the predator's head in between their bum and the top of the burrow. Wombat 1, Predator 0.
Wombats in the northern part of Tasmania are currently experiencing a bad epidemic of Sarcoptic mange, which is decimating their populations. I'm in a good spot to learn about this because the professor I'm working with for my summer project here at the University does a lot of research on this issue, and he and some of his PhD students are trying to find a treatment for the problem. I had the opportunity to go with him up to Narawntapu National Park on the north coast of Tasmania, which used to have a huge population of Wombats but has been hit hardest by the mange. It's a beautiful park, and I was treated to two wombat sightings, and kangaroos!
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| Mangy wombat |
This past weekend, I was enlisted to help the ecologists and a visiting archeologist in a project to figure out the amount of fat that wombats have between summer and winter. We were working on wombats that died from being hit by a car, or were euthanized for mange, so it was a bit smelly, but hopefully the data will give us some interesting results. It was also a wonderful opportunity to appreciate wombat anatomy up close, and see the extent of the mange problem - it's a pretty nasty infection. I am hopeful that the team of researchers and national park scientists will figure out a way to get the epidemic under control.
Here are some articles about the wombat mange projects:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-11/researchers-declare-war-on-wombat-mange-in-tasmanian-national-p/6010398
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33549928
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| A Pademelon at Narawntapu |
Some more information about all three species of Wombats:
http://www.australianwildlife.net.au/pdf/wombat/AWS_Project_Wombat.pdf
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| Eastern Grey (Forester) Kangaroos |
*Disclaimer - I am not a wombat biologist so the facts presented here are likely mostly correct but are not guaranteed to be completely correct.
But you could be a wombat biologist if you wanted. Or perhaps a specialty wombat vet? That could be an interesting career choice. ;-)
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