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Cliff Schoefler
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Wonderful Wombats
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Wombats are without a doubt (in my extremely biased opinion) the most lovable of Australia's many marsupials. They are large enough to substitute for your average family dog and are just as playful - at least while they're young. It must be said however that Wombats don't automatically do well in captivity and only a handful would make a suitable pet.
There are three species of Wombats. The most numerous and widespread is the Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus). This animal is found from the Queensland/New South Wales border, around the coastal (not usually in the dry interior) band through to South Australia. It prefers forest-covered hills or mountainous areas that provide both good hillsides to burrow in to and native grasses to eat. Adult wombats are very large. They can weigh in at 40kg although 30kg is more common. They are very strong and determined animals and that sometimes gets them into trouble with farmers. Presented with a fence they will often push their way through and leave a hole large enough for less desirable intruders such as Dingoes and rabbits. While Wombats are a protected species, there are still some areas particularly in Victoria where they are shot as vermin. There is a subspecies of the Common Wombat that is now only found on Flinders Island in Bass Strait. It was found on other Bass Strait islands but is now extinct there. It is smaller than its mainland cousin and has the scientific name Vombatus ursinus ursinus.
The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latrifrons) is an arid climate animal and only lives in a few areas of southern South Australia and Western Australia. Its range was much wider before European settlement. It is well adapted to its harsh environment where it must survive without water in high temperatures. The available food tends to be fibrous and low in water and protein. It lives in extensive warrens where the atmosphere is cool and humid during the hot daytime. Its body temperature falls to conserve both energy and water. The resting metabolic rate is slower than Common Wombats and food is thoroughly ground up and passes very slowly through the gut (8 days) for maximum nutrient extraction. Its burrow system is more social than for Common Wombats where 5 to 10 animals consisting of both sexes may live together. A warren system consists of a central set of burrows often occupied by the males and smaller warrens within about a 150m radius where females reside for varying periods. Hairy-nosed Wombat breeding is more seasonal and male aggressive behaviour is usually restricted to that season. Young are usually born September to December and spend the next six to nine months in the pouch. Sexual maturity occurs at about 3 years of age. Hairy-nosed Wombats require a minimum of three good seasons to increase their population. In arid areas this is not common, so it pays to be long-lived (and patient) to make the most of the good times when they occur.
The third species is the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) which would have to be considered to be on the brink of extinction. The fossil record indicates that this animal was once widespread in inland Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
By the beginning of this century the only two known populations were near Deniliquin in southern New South Wales and in the Moonie River area of Queensland. These animals died out in a drought early in the 1900s. This was probably not due to drought alone but to competition from introduced grazing animals such as cattle and sheep. The Wombats have a narrower preference of food species. At this stage extinction was assumed. In 1937 a small population was discovered in Epping Forest in Queensland near Clermont. It took until 1982 (to our shame) to exclude cattle from their area and give them a chance to increase in number. In 1971 there were only 35 individuals counted, but 1995 there were about 80. A recent report suggested this number had dropped again to about 60 but this is unconfirmed. They will remain in great danger of extinction until there are sufficient numbers to repopulate other areas, since a single location is too vulnerable to a chance catastrophe that may wipe them out.
Common Wombats
Let me say right from the start (from personal experience) Wombats are smart. They have a large brain and they know how to use it. They are frolicsome and will play with what seems like inexhaustible energy. They are also quite fleet of foot, able to run at around 40 km/hr. They are particularly fast and smart when a packet of chocolate biscuits is about to be put out of reach. (First rule of Wombat keeping - never get between a Wombat and a source of chocolate biscuits. Remember you can't out-run it, you almost certainly can't out-wrestle it, but you will be stream-rolled by it. So if it comes to a choice of being assaulted by a Wombat or giving up your favourite biscuits, surrender the biscuits, it's less painful.) Note the Wombat in the photo is running straight at the camera and appears to have all legs off the ground! They really can run. Fortunately for the photographer (me), the wombat (Brutus) was only young at the time and was responding to my call, not the irresistible smell of chocolate biscuits.
Wombats as everyone knows dig holes, big holes. Their burrows may extend up to 20 or 30m long. Shorter burrows (2 to 5m) are made and used as well. They are usually made, by digging into a hillside or creek slope. They are dug with the short flattened claws of the strong front legs. The back legs are used to push loose earth and rocks out of the way. The burrow is enlarged,by lying on the side and scratching out the sides and roof. (Second rule of Wombat keeping - Never keep a Wombat in a Mudbrick house. They will lie on their sides and while away the hours digging through your walls.) They occupy these burrows during the daytime usually alone, but sometimes shared with other individuals. Wombats may share burrows depending on ranges but usually at different times. An individual may visit up to four burrows per night. Any dog or fox insane enough to chase a Wombat into its burrow risks being crushed to death between the wall of the burrow and 30kg or so of solid muscle.
While Wombats are generally nocturnal they will sometimes come out during a winters day to make the most of some sunshine. They eat native grasses, and roots, sedges and chocolate biscuits. Unfortunately for them, chocolate biscuit plants are quite rare.
The photograph shows a young Wombat in a peaceful moment of gastronomic bliss. The dish is straight grass without the usual issue of bottled milk or biscuits. It should be said at this point for all those who might misunderstand, that sweet biscuits are generally bad for wombat's (and most other marsupial's) teeth. Wombats have either not heard this, or they don't care. As an adaptation to biscuit eating (or is it that their natural diet tends to be high in silica and wears their teeth down?), wombats have rootless teeth that grow continuously throughout their lifetime (rather like rodents).
Breeding (Wombat nookie)
Wombats are rather like us. They breed anytime. Females have a rear opening pouch with two nipples although usually only one young is raised at a time. Wombat Junior will remain in the pouch for about six months before it is either kicked out or leaves peacefully. It will then follow its mother for nearly another year. Having raised a young wombat I have some sympathy for mother wombats. The young tend to play biting games that must drive the mothers crazy. Young Wombats mature sexually at about two years and can expect to live at least 5 years or more. Wombats in captivity can live long lives of around twenty years. An adult wombat has few natural enemies, the Dingo probably being the main predator. Humans and their cars account for many wombat deaths per year but where humans are scarce wombat numbers are limited by the availability of food. Wombats have a home territory which, depending on the environment may be anything from 5 to 25 hectares. Territories are marked and defended with scent markings, burrows and aggressive behaviour. Male Wombats will go through a threat display if an unwelcome (wombat) visitor trespasses on a favoured feeding ground by swinging his head from side to side, showing and gnashing his teeth, and growling. This will often be sufficient to drive away a rival, but wombat fights can occur and considerable damage can result from powerful bites.
Brutus the Wombat
This is a true story (I know because I still have the bruises).
Every now and then something (in my household it is usually either furry or feathery and smells like it is in urgent need of a bath) unexpected enters your life and somehow changes it forever. In 1988, only days before Christmas we "inherited" a young wombat named Brutus.
A friend named Graeme Robinson and his veterinarian wife Margaret had been given a baby Wombat to try and raise. A Bendigo family on a trip to Gippsland had hit and killed the mother wombat with their car. Fortunately they had had the good sense to check the pouch and extract an uninjured youngster. He was brought back to Bendigo and handed to the RSPCA who then gave it to Margaret. On December 23, 1988 Graeme and his son David were injured in a car crash just outside their property. A certain wombat was running riot in a traumatised household so myself, and my wife Sue collected the errant beast and took it home to our very much incomplete mud-brick house.
We were right out of Wombat burrows, so Brutus moved in to what would eventually become our laundry. He seemed to be quite at home in that room, even dug out his own doorway (nearly).
This was the beginning of quite an adventure for all of us, including Brutus.
Brutus at this stage was about 10 kilograms, but was not weaned and required bottle-feeding at regular intervals both day and night. He slept in large beanbag, usually upside down and cuddling a small stuffed-toy possum. While wombats are normally nocturnal, Brutus kept odd hours, probably because he partly adapted to human cycles. He would have periods of intense activity when he would run around, often chasing myself, Sue or my dog Kanga and playing his rather painful biting game that he seemed to love. This would be followed by several hours sleep either on the floor or in his bean-bag. This cycle often continued through the night and early morning. It was not unusual to be woken at 4am in the morning by scratching noises followed by whistles and squeals. Time for a feed! Get out the bottle and the special milk. Warm it up, pick up the wombat and stick the teat in its mouth, then try to stay awake while he drinks his fill. Then a play, then if we were lucky another sleep period. Just like a human baby does I hear all you parents say? Wombats are hairier.
One major drawback of keeping a wombat inside your house is that unless the animal has regular baths the smell can bit a bit overpowering. Fortunately despite the advances in technology, newsletters cannot include smells. The reader is therefore spared this delight! Brutus was bathed often and seemed to enjoy it. He was very playful, every bit as playful and cheeky as any dog. Once when marauding (and that's the only way to describe it) around Graeme's office (before the car accident) my mother-in-law Wanda brought her two grandchildren in to meet Brutus. Kate, the eldest was very wary of any animal and kept away from Brutus at first. Wanda tried to show her "how friendly the nice wombat was" by stroking his head and back. Andrew is more at home with animals and patted the hairy marsupial enthusiastically. Brutus chose that moment to start a game of "bite the mother-in-law on the bottom". Wanda instinctively jumped up and yelped. Brutus never really bite all that hard, it was just a game, but Wanda's reaction sent Kate into panic mode and she fled out the door. Brutus then galloped around the room with I'm sure a smile of mischievous delight.
He played this biting game often, mostly by standing on his rear legs with his front legs over an arm and hitting the arm with his top incisors. It was more hitting than a true bite, which was just as well, because even when young, wombats have powerful teeth. He even played this game with my dog Kanga. Kanga was a 40kg German Shepherd who was not daunted by this powerful young animal. Brutus would put his front legs on the dog's back and bite his back repeatedly. Kanga would tolerate this for a while then run off, usually with the wombat in hot pursuit. The dog was a truly remarkable animal, the most gentle and intelligent non-human animal I have ever had the privilege to meet. While most dogs will kill small animals this dog would gently pick them up and bring them home to me. He was thoroughly harassed by Brutus who probably enjoyed the companionship of another hairy creature. Every now and then the wombat would push his luck just a little too far and the dog would shake Brutus off and pin him to the ground by his neck. No biting, just holding and a warning growl. When Brutus was released from the dog's grip he would immediately resume his game and attack Kanga. (Third rule of Wombat keeping - Never push a wombat away. He will only push back harder). Poor Kanga must have been very irritated at the time and perhaps suffered more than I realised, since I was to learn shortly that he had a terminal cancer and in a matter of weeks we would all be missing our friend. Wombats don't seem to feel pain. No matter how roughly he was treated by the dog or even me, he would do exactly what he wanted no matter what. This was evident one day when I made the mistake of shutting the flywire door in his face to keep him outside while I went inside to get a drink. Brutus wanted to follow me so he did. He just tore the door apart and kept going. Easy to see why farmers don't like them.
Brutus wanted to be where the action was. If there was attention going he wanted his share (and everything else's as well) but there were times when his wombat need for solitude and curiosity took him away from us for brief sorties into the unknown.
One summer's night when it was too hot to be inside, Brutus and I went outside into the cool of the garden to relax. Brutus spent most of his time eating the remaining green grass. I probably dozed off, (at least that's my excuse) but I thought that I could hear Brutus moving about nearby. It was very dark, only the stars were giving light. When I decided it was time to go to bed I turned on my flashlight to find Brutus but there was no wombat to be seen. Panic stations! How could he disappear so silently? I searched the area with the flashlight but the battery was nearly flat so I went back to the house and dragged a hot and sleepy dog out of his box and told him to find Brutus. Kanga followed a path that led to the border fence with my neighbour. I didn't (couldn't) believe Brutus would go so far, so I ignored the dog's advice and sent him back to his box. We then used two cars with headlights blazing to search the property. Not a wombat to be seen.
I then had to admit that the dog may well have been right after all. The people next door had only moved in the last week so I had not even met them. I knocked on their door at nearly midnight and as embarrassed as I was, introduced myself as their next-door-neighbour, and asked " by the way have you seen my pet wombat?". They probably thought they had a loony living next door. Despite the hour, they gave me their permission to search around their property, and yes, underneath their house was Brutus the explorer, totally indifferent to the excitement going on around him. Luckily he came when called because there was little room under the house to crawl around chasing him. He then (undeservedly) received lots of attention from my neighbour's children who were dragged out of bed to meet the wombat. I then took him back to my house and locked him in the laundry. One last job before going to bed, "sorry dog, I should never have doubted you".
Wombat Nutrition
Baby wombats are mammals, they drink mum's milk. That's fine if they have a mum but what do you feed an orphan wombat? Cow's milk? Goat's? Synthetic? Fortunately there is a company in Australia called "Wombaroo" that makes milk substitutes for all types of baby mammals around the world. It was easy enough to order suitable milk for Brutus that was made up with water as required. Wombaroo supplied expected growth curves and Brutus's weights fitted well with known data as shown in the graph of pouch age versus body weight. Milk was required many times per day and night. He was fed on demand within reason and over the months we had him, he was introduced to other more adult foods mainly grass, carrots and other root vegetables. He also demanded to be fed some more human foods if he could con a biscuit or other sweet treat out of either Sue or myself, or anyone who happened to be visiting.
Wombat Play
Brutus as has been stated earlier like to play a biting game. This game was his favourite and would often continue until he was totally exhausted. If this behaviour is normal in the wild as I have heard it suggested, a mother wombat must be truly driven crazy, to the point of driving off her offspring into enforced independence.
Goodbye Brutus
It is illegal to keep a wild Wombat as a pet in Victoria. It is permissible to rear orphans as we did but they cannot be kept indefinitely. As I understand it, there are parts of Gippsland (an eastern part of Victoria) where licenses are issued to farmers to shoot wombats where they become pests. I don't have to point out to the reader the absurdity of this. It is plain enough.
The following text was the original story, as I understood the facts to be. On the 11th of November 1996, information was supplied to me that confirmed that Brutus was never "exported" overseas.
In May 1989 we took Brutus to the Royal Melbourne Zoo. He was placed with a young female wombat named Daisy and they were both sent overseas together to Berlin. We hope that Brutus still lives and has had many offspring so that the people of Germany can enjoy these wonderful animals also. We did wonder about the demise of the Berlin Wall. We were just a bit suspicious that the wall came down not long after Brutus arrived in Germany. Wombats will wreck anything if it gets in their way!
We now know that Brutus and Daisy were in fact released back into the wilds of Gippsland (south eastern Victoria) in 1990. There was some confusion early in the piece with another pair of Wombats. In June 1989 "Boskoe" and "Riddle" were sent from the Royal Melbourne Zoo to the Berlin Zoo in Germany. We were told that this pair was Brutus and Daisy. Wrong!
My comments about the Berlin Wall etc. still stand, only the names of the animals' change.
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