There
are some interesting Australian wombat facts.
Wombat is not only one of the most interesting Australian animals,
it is the largest herbivorous burrowing mammal in the world.
It may
look slow and stocky, but it can run 40km/h and it has got a larger
brain than all other marsupial animals. It is the closest relative to
koala
which developed to a tree dweller while wombat lives on the ground
where it burrows holes and eats roots and leaves.
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Wombat Facts: Food
Wombats are more than a metre long bear-looking animals that live in
southern parts of Australia.
It eats roots and leaves, and it has got a special stomach gland
that helps it to cope with a diet so fibrous and low in nutrients. It
is very territorial when it comes to food and it chases other animals
out of his marked territory with a display of head shaking and growl.
The size of its territory is up to 23 hectares and depends on food
availability – the scarcer the food, the larger the territory.
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Wombat Facts: Where Do They
Live?
They live in burrows. It burrows holes – it can excavate a few
metres of burrow a night. It has got a network of burrow systems across
its territory, some burrows may be up to 30 metres long. Burrow gives
it protection from the weather, bushfires and predators. It spends two
thirds of its life underground, resting and giving the burrows
continuous maintenance.
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Wombat Facts: Behavior
Wombats are solitary animals. Females burrow special nursery chambers
in their burrows in which they give birth and raise the young. About a
month after mating, female gives birth to a bean-sized young weighing
one gram. The young crawls into its mother’s pouch and stays there
until it weighs about 3kg and it spends a year learning the tricks of
life beside its mother before it’s ready to leave and look for an own
territory.
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Are They Endangered? Introduced
animals
such as dingoes and foxes prey on wombats but the main threat to them
is habitat destruction by humans and competition from feral herbivores.
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Species of Australian Wombats
There are three species of Australian wombats, although only the first
one is common:
Common Wombat
Common Wombat (Vombatus Ursinus) is found in parts
of
south-eastern New
South Wales, eastern Victoria
and Tasmania.
It breeds all year around, is mature in two years and lives up to 15
years. It can weigh up to 39 kilos and its species status is secure.
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Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
is found on
the Nullarbor Plain in South
Australia the south-eastern corner of Western
Australia. Its breeding season is August to
November and it matures at three years of age.
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Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat
Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii)
is only found
in Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland,
where it is protected by a dingo-proof fence but the tiny population of
about 100 individuals is threatened by inbreeding, bushfires, drought
and spread of weeds.
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Where To See Australian Wombats
Great places to see wombats are Blue
Mountains National Park and Kosciuszko
National Park in New South Wales, Wilsons
Promontory in Victoria, Cradle
Mountain – Lake St Clair in Tasmania, and in
many national parks in South Australia. You can get close to them
at some of Australia’s many animal sanctuaries and zoo parks: Melbourne
Zoo in Melbourne,
Taronga Zoo in Sydney,
Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane,
Australia Zoo on the Sunshine
Coast, Billabong Sanctuary south of Townsville
and Kuranda
Wildlife Noctarium north of Cairns
to name a few. In these and other zoo parks you can get a photo taken
with wombats and other Australian animals.
Note:
This site uses
British English, which is the English we use in Australia. You will
find words like "traveller", "harbour" and "realise", and they are all
correct in the language used in Australia.
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