wombats under seige

Two members have mostly silky hair with coarser hair on their short, broad noses. One member has coarse hair and a long, naked nose. They are as loved as they are reviled. They are wombats. Not the recording trio from Liverpool currently climbing the indie charts, but the marsupials that live along the southern coastlands of Australia.

The ancestors to modern wombats evolved between 26-55 million years ago. Twelve species of wombats, including one the size of a hippopotamus, survived into the ice ages. It is believed that the early human inhabitants brought these species to extinction through hunting and loss of habitat.

Today, three species of wombat are found in Australia; the Northern hairy-nosed, the Southern hairy-nosed, and the common wombat. Wombats look like a cross between a koala (their closest living relative) and a small pig. They have short stout bodies with powerful legs. They can measure over three feet in length and the heaviest weigh in excess of eighty pounds.

Wombats are nocturnal herbivores. They tend to be slow movers but when necessary can run up to 40kmph. Wombats can be quite viscous when threatened.

According to a story circulating on the Internet (apocryphal at this point), Morty Kensington of Toledo, Ohio, tried to capitalize on the wombat’s reputation for viciousness. On August 1, 2006, Kensington was arrested on an animal cruelty complaint. Several dozen wombats were confiscated from his home.

When questioned by police, Kensington admitted that he had purchased the marsupials with the intent of developing a wombat-fighting ring. He complained to police about what a bad investment he had made. Not only did the wombats dig out of everything he built to hold them, instead of fighting, that just sat and stared at each other.

Wombats build and live in a series of burrows called warrens. It is not uncommon to find a central warren with smaller warrens around it within a three hundred foot radius. The warrens offer a refuge from weather extremes as well as provide protection from predators.

Any dingo or feral dog that enters the warren will quickly find that he has made a deadly mistake. Wombats are known to use their powerful legs to press the intruder against the roof of the burrow, literally squeezing the life out of it.

The wombats’ digging ability has made them hated by farmers. Much open land in Australia has been fenced off as pastureland for sheep and cattle. The farmers put up “rabbit proof” fences meant to keep out an invasive species of rabbit that was brought to Australia by European settlers. The wombats easily dig under the fences, giving rabbits and predators access to the grasslands and herds.

The wombats digging can also destroy crops and cattle sometimes break a leg when a burrow collapses under their weight.

While the wombat is classified as threatened in all of Australia, some areas allow farmers to poison and shoot wombats as pests. In certain areas, each farmer may kill up to three hundred wombats per year.

There are many groups in Australia dedicated to the protection of wombats. There are groups of farmers advocating for their right to earn a living. It is never easy when economic interests and wildlife collide. The way is not always clear. What is clear is that we must proceed with caution. The fate of the Northern hairy-nosed wombat is a clear demonstration of that principle.

The Northern hairy-nosed wombat, once widespread throughout Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, is teetering on the brink of extinction. This species was decimated by drought in the early part of the twentieth century. The animals that survived the drought were driven to extinction by competition for food brought about by the introduction of herd animals.

A small colony of Northern hairy-nosed wombats was discovered in 1937 in Epping Forrest in Queensland and today, the last 100 Northern hairy-nosed wombats on the planet can be found there.

The wombat is seen by some as vermin to be eradicated. The proponents of this view should realize that the wombat plays a role in balancing a biological system. When the wombat population is decimated, the whole system is negatively affected.