Vombatus ursinuscoarse-haired wombat

Ge­o­graphic Range

Wom­bats are na­tive to the Aus­tralian bio­geo­graphic re­gion. Coarse-haired wom­bats are found along the east­ern edge of Queens­land and New South Whales, in ad­di­tion to Vic­to­ria, Flinder's Is­land, Tas­ma­nia, and parts of South Aus­tralia. ("Vom­batus ursi­nus", 2011; Paris, et al., 2002)

Habi­tat

Coarse-haired wom­bats in­habit tem­per­ate areas with suit­able bur­row­ing con­di­tions, which may in­clude areas such as open forests, heath­lands, and hilly coastal scrub. ("Com­mon Wom­bat", 2009; "Vom­batus ursi­nus", 2011; Menkhorst and Knight, 2011)

  • Range elevation
    0 to 1800 m
    0.00 to 5905.51 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Coarse-haired wom­bats are large, squat, thick-set graz­ers with a broad, rounded head, stubby tail, small dark eyes, and small round ears. Its limbs are short with sturdy claws for bur­row­ing. Wom­bats have a pair of root­less, ever-grow­ing in­cisors dif­fers them from mar­su­pi­als and can be used for cut­ting through ob­sta­cles when bur­row­ing. Its fur is thick and coarse and can range in color from grey-brown to black­ish, patchy grey and buff, or uni­formly cream col­ored. Un­like the two other species of wom­bat, this species lacks hair on its rhi­nar­ium, and the ears are smaller and more furred than that of its close rel­a­tives. The north­ern and south­ern hairy nosed wom­bats tend to­ward longer muz­zles that are more square-like in shape. Pop­u­la­tions of coarse-haired wom­bats that in­habit Tas­ma­nia tend to have smaller mem­bers than the main­land, and Flinders Is­land pop­u­la­tions have the small­est mem­bers. ("Com­mon Wom­bat", 2009; Menkhorst and Knight, 2011)

  • Range mass
    20 to 35 kg
    44.05 to 77.09 lb
  • Range length
    700 to 1100 mm
    27.56 to 43.31 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Coarse-haired wom­bats re­pro­duc­tive be­hav­ior con­sists of a male chas­ing the fe­male in cir­cles for sev­eral min­utes at a time until the fe­male slows down enough for him to catch up. At this point he bites her rump, grasps her with his forelegs, and flips her onto her side. The male then mounts her while lay­ing on his side; after which the fe­male may break off into a jog, and the chas­ing be­hav­ior en­sues again. These ses­sions may last about 30 min­utes. Not much is known about wom­bat mat­ing sys­tems, but there is some ev­i­dence to sug­gest that they are polyg­y­nous. (Banks, et al., 2002; Barnes, 2005; Jack­son, 2003)

Coarse-haired wom­bats typ­i­cally breed and pro­duce one off­spring about every two years. Their breed­ing doesn't seem to be tied to any par­tic­u­lar sea­son, though births may be clus­tered in sum­mer. Ges­ta­tion lasts ap­prox­i­mately one month, pro­duc­ing a tiny joey about the size of a jelly bean. This joey grows in the pouch until it is weaned at ap­prox­i­mately 12 months of age. Both male and fe­male wom­bats are sex­u­ally ma­ture after about 2 years. ("Com­mon Wom­bat", 2009; Paris, et al., 2002; Sker­ratt, et al., 2004; de Ma­g­a­l­haes and Costa, 2009)

  • Breeding interval
    Common wombats breed about once every two years.
  • Breeding season
    Reproduction is not strongly linked to seasons.
  • Average number of offspring
    1
  • Average number of offspring
    1
    AnAge
  • Range gestation period
    27 to 31 days
  • Range weaning age
    12 to 20 months
  • Range time to independence
    18 to 20 months
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    2 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    Sex: female
    730 days
    AnAge
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    2 years
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)
    Sex: male
    730 days
    AnAge

After birth, the wom­bat joey will live in its mother's pouch for about 6 months, feed­ing off the moth­ers milk until about 15 months of age. The wom­bat will re­main with its mother until about 18 to 20 months of age, until it gains its in­de­pen­dence. ("Com­mon Wom­bat", 2009; Menkhorst and Knight, 2011; Paris, et al., 2002)

  • Parental Investment
  • altricial
  • female parental care
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

There are few stud­ies de­scrib­ing wom­bat longevity; how­ever, the longest a wom­bat lived in cap­tiv­ity was ap­prox­i­mately 30 years. They typ­i­cally only live 12 to 15 years. (Barnes, 2005; de Ma­g­a­l­haes and Costa, 2009)

Be­hav­ior

Wom­bats are mainly noc­tur­nal and cre­pus­cu­lar, emerg­ing from their bur­rows at dusk to graze in the cooler night tem­per­a­tures. How­ever dur­ing colder sea­sons they may be seen sun­bathing in the day. When for­ag­ing, coarse-haired wom­bats might travel sev­eral kilo­me­ters in search of food, often vis­it­ing the same sites re­peat­edly, cre­at­ing short patches of grass known as "mar­su­pial lawns." Wom­bats are soli­tary, but their home ranges tend to over­lap. Mul­ti­ple wom­bats might use the same bur­row, but rarely at the same time. When bur­row­ing, they re­move dirt in front of them using the claws, then "bull­doze" the dirt back­wards using their rump. They use a sim­i­lar tac­tic for deal­ing with preda­tors in their bur­row, back­ing up at the at­tacker and using their strong back legs to crush their head against the roof of the bur­row. Wom­bats may have mul­ti­ple rest­ing cham­bers, in which they build nests out of grass, leaves and sticks. To con­serve en­ergy, they may spend up to 16 hours a day sleep­ing in these cham­bers. (Favreau, et al., 2009; Jack­son, 2003)

  • Range territory size
    0.024 to 0.083 km^2

Home Range

The home range of the com­mon wom­bat ranges from 0.024 to 0.083 square kilo­me­ters in size, and often con­tains mul­ti­ple bur­rows. (Sker­ratt, et al., 2004)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

The com­mon wom­bat com­mu­ni­cates to con­specifics in a num­ber of ways, mainly through scent mark­ing to main­tain ter­ri­to­ries. Other forms of com­mu­ni­ca­tion in­clude vo­cal­iza­tions, ag­gre­sive dis­plays, and mark­ings on logs and branches made by rub­bing against them re­peat­edly. ("Vom­batus ursi­nus", 2011)

Food Habits

The com­bi­na­tion of low meta­bolic ac­tiv­ity and a large di­ges­tive tract al­lows wom­bats to uti­lize areas where the veg­e­ta­tion may be of poor qual­ity. The com­mon wom­bat is a fo­li­vore, with a diet that con­sists of na­tive grasses, sedges, moss, and some­times shrubs, roots, tu­bers, and bark. The small, acidic stom­ach and sim­ple small in­tes­tine of wom­bats di­gests plant cell ma­te­r­ial, while the hind gut houses mi­cro­bial fer­men­ta­tion, with which wom­bats di­gest the fi­brous cell walls of plants. The hind gut con­sists of a prox­i­mal colon (which makes up roughly 60 to 80% of gut con­tents), a cecum, and the dis­tal colon. Some of the plant species in the wom­bat diet in­clude Poa, Themeda aus­tralis, Carex ap­pressa, Jun­cas, Stipa, and Dan­tho­nia peni­cil­lata. ("Com­mon Wom­bat", 2009; "Di­ges­tive Strate­gies of the Wom­bats: Feed In­take, Fiber Di­ges­tion, and Di­gesta Pas­sage in Two Graz­ing Mar­su­pi­als with Hindgut Fer­men­ta­tion", 1993; Barnes, 2005; Menkhorst and Knight, 2011; Sker­ratt, et al., 2004)

  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • roots and tubers
  • wood, bark, or stems
  • bryophytes

Pre­da­tion

Preda­tors of the com­mon wom­bat in­clude Tas­man­ian dev­ils, dogs, wedge-tailed ea­gles, and hu­mans. Prior to their ex­tinc­tion, Tas­man­ian wolves prob­a­bly preyed on the wom­bats, as well. The com­bi­na­tion of low meta­bolic rate and ef­fi­cient di­ges­tion al­lows wom­bats to spend much of their time in their bur­rows away from preda­tors, though wom­bats likely have these traits to ex­ploit a diet of poor-qual­ity veg­e­ta­tion and not to avoid pre­da­tion. Wom­bats some­times build dirt plugs to close off their tun­nels, which may be a de­fen­sive be­hav­ior. ("Di­ges­tive Strate­gies of the Wom­bats: Feed In­take, Fiber Di­ges­tion, and Di­gesta Pas­sage in Two Graz­ing Mar­su­pi­als with Hindgut Fer­men­ta­tion", 1993; Favreau, et al., 2009; Jack­son, 2003)

  • Anti-predator Adaptations
  • cryptic

Ecosys­tem Roles

Wom­bats often live in ri­par­ian en­vi­ron­ments, due to their pref­er­ence to build bur­rows above creeks and streams. Due to their graz­ing and soil-dis­plac­ing habits, wom­bats may help to pro­vide dif­fer­ent mi­crosites that in­flu­ence veg­e­ta­tive growth pat­terns in these en­vi­ron­ments. (Bor­chard and El­dridge, 2011; Jack­son, 2003)

  • Ecosystem Impact
  • creates habitat
Com­men­sal/Par­a­sitic Species

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Wom­bats were hunted for their pelts; now they are pro­tected and it is il­le­gal. ("IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2011)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Wom­bats are some­times seen as pests in areas of farm­ing due to their bur­row­ing be­hav­ior cre­at­ing haz­ards for live­stock. Also, wom­bats some­times bur­row under rab­bit fences, al­low­ing rab­bits an es­cape path. ("Com­mon Wom­bat", 2009; Paris, et al., 2002)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Ac­cord­ing the the IUCN Red List for Threat­ened Species, coarse-haired wom­bats are listed as least con­cern, and the pop­u­la­tion trends are cur­rently sta­ble. They are pro­tected in all states of Aus­tralia. ("Com­mon Wom­bat", 2009; "IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species", 2011)

Con­trib­u­tors

Ben­jamin Galetka (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Christo­pher Yahnke (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point.

Glossary

Australian

Living in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea and associated islands.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

crepuscular

active at dawn and dusk

cryptic

having markings, coloration, shapes, or other features that cause an animal to be camouflaged in its natural environment; being difficult to see or otherwise detect.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

female parental care

parental care is carried out by females

folivore

an animal that mainly eats leaves.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

fossorial

Referring to a burrowing life-style or behavior, specialized for digging or burrowing.

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

riparian

Referring to something living or located adjacent to a waterbody (usually, but not always, a river or stream).

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

year-round breeding

breeding takes place throughout the year

Ref­er­ences

2009. "Com­mon Wom­bat" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 21, 2012 at http://​www.​dpiw.​tas.​gov.​au/​inter.​nsf/​webpages/​bhan-53f7kj?​open.

1993. Di­ges­tive Strate­gies of the Wom­bats: Feed In­take, Fiber Di­ges­tion, and Di­gesta Pas­sage in Two Graz­ing Mar­su­pi­als with Hindgut Fer­men­ta­tion. Phys­i­o­log­i­cal Zo­ol­ogy, Vol. 66, No. 6: pp. 983-999. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 21, 2012 at http://​www.​jstor.​org/​stable/​30163750.

2011. "IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 10, 2012 at http://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​apps/​redlist/​search.

2011. "Vom­batus ursi­nus" (On-line). En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Life. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 24, 2012 at http://​eol.​org/​pages/​981577/​details.

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

Barnes, M. 2005. "Hus­bandry Man­ual for Com­mon Wom­bat" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 02, 2012 at http://​www.​fourthcrossingwildlife.​com/​CommonWombatHusbandryManual-MicheleBarnes.​pdf.

Bor­chard, P., D. El­dridge. 2011. The ge­o­mor­phic sig­na­ture of bare-nosed wom­bats (Vom­bat­usursi­nus) and cat­tle (Bos tau­rus) in an agri­cul­tural ri­par­ian ecosys­tem. Ge­o­mor­phol­ogy, 130/3-4: 365-373. Ac­cessed April 16, 2012 at http://​www.​sciencedirect.​com/​science/​article/​pii/​S0169555X11001905.

Favreau, F., P. Jar­man, A. Goldizen, A. Dubot, S. Sourice, O. Pays. 2009. Vig­i­lance in a soli­tary mar­su­pial, the com­mon wom­bat (Vom­batus ursi­nus). AUS­TRALIAN JOUR­NAL OF ZO­OL­OGY, 57/6: 363-371.

Jack­son, S. 2003. Aus­tralian Mam­mals Bi­ol­ogy and Cap­tive Man­age­ment. Colling­wood VIC 3066: Csiro Pub­lish­ing.

Jar­man, P., E. Mur­ray. 2010. "Cir­ca­dian Vari­a­tion In Re­source Qual­ity: Leaf Water Con­tent And Its Rel­e­vance To East­ern Grey Kan­ga­roo Macro­pus Gi­gan­teus And Com­mon Wom­bat Vom­batus Ursi­nus.". Aus­tral Ecol­ogy, 35, no. 2: 176-188.

Menkhorst, P., F. Knight. 2011. A Field Guide to the Mam­mals of Aus­tralia. Ox­ford, New York: Ox­ford Uni­ver­sity Press.

Paris, M., A. White, A. Reiss, M. West, F. Schwarzen­berger. 2002. Fae­cal prog­es­terone metabo­lites and be­hav­ioural ob­ser­va­tions for the non-in­va­sive as­sess­ment of oe­strous cy­cles in the com­mon wom­bat (Vom­batus ursi­nus) and the south­ern hairy-nosed wom­bat (La­siorhi­nus lat­ifrons).. An­i­mal Re­pro­duc­tion Sci­ence, 72, no. 3/4: 245.

Sker­ratt, L., J. Sker­ratt, S. Banks, R. Mar­tin, K. Han­dasyde. 2004. As­pects of the ecol­ogy of com­mon wom­bats (Vom­batus ursi­nus) at high den­sity on pas­toral land in Vic­to­ria. Aus­tralian jour­nal of zo­ol­ogy, 52/3: 303-330.

de Ma­g­a­l­haes, J., J. Costa. 2009. "A data­base of ver­te­brate longevity records and their re­la­tion to other life-his­tory traits" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 21, 2012 at http://​genomics.​senescence.​info/​species/​entry.​php?​species=Vombatus_​ursinus.