Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat(03/07/2003)
There are only 110 Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat’s left in the world. Their status is so precarious, even researchers are only allowed to enter the high security sanctuary once every three years. This year Catalyst reporter Paul Willis was allowed into the wombat’s territory. His exclusive report follows the scientists trying to discover if the northern hairy nosed wombats have a chance of surviving.
The team are working round the clock trapping and collecting samples from these rarest of all wombats. But for the scientists it’s a race against time – the longer a wombat is in captivity the more stressed it becomes. Their work is crucial in identifying each individual wombat and telling how much inbreeding there is in the population. This is a big problem for endangered animals, if there genetic variation is too low, that is if there has been a lot of inbreeding, the population is very susceptible to disease and is as a whole weaker. These wombats have received the best possible treatment to bring them back from the brink of extinction. But the big question the team must answer is have they found the key to the survival of the Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat?
Narration: In the middle of the vast farmlands of Central Queensland is 300 hectares of forest that hasn’t been cleared. Inside, protected by security fences, is one of Australia’s most endangered mammals – The Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat.
It’s the only place on earth where they still exist. This is the first time in three years that anyone has been allowed into their reserve. Now a team of scientists are descending on this remote population to trap these rare wombats and see how they’re doing. Alan Horsup is heading the research team. He’s determined to bring the northern hairy nosed wombat back from the brink of extinction.
Paul Willis: So how many wombats are in the park at the moment?
Dr Alan Horsup at the last count, that was in 2000. In 2000 ten wombats were killed, probably by Dingoes, that’s 10% of an already dangerously small population. So this new fence now completely encloses the survivors.
Narration: The team have just three weeks in the reserve to find out how the rare wombats are faring.
The northern hairy nosed wombat is a unique animal. It split off from the rest of the wombats 6.5 million years ago. It’s the largest burrowing herbivore in the world and spends 80% of its time underground. It used to exist right down to the Victorian border but now the entire population lives in this one isolated population. As long as all the wombats are all in one place the species is in danger of being wiped out.
Dr Alan Horsup: We’ve got all our eggs in one basket and there are so many risks hanging over this population. There’s major wildfire. There’s disease. There’s just the fact that it’s so small and populations go up and down and this one could dip and go down, halving those risks would make this species more secure
Narration: The ultimate aim for the wombat researchers is to create a second wombat colony somewhere else. Jodie McGill is studying temperature, humidity and soil type, so eventually they can find other locations where conditions are the same.
Jodie McGill My data will actually help in finding a trans location site. We can actually take this data, go to another site. We can test the soil, we can dig down the depths that these burrows are at and test are the temperature and humidity the same.
Narration: But to create a new population first they need to find out if their wombats are breeding and that’s where the trapping comes in.
Dr Alan Horsup: So this is it Paul, we basically use a fishing line, to set a rat trap to catch a wombat.
Paul: So a wombat walks into the trap, what happens
Alan: So a wombat walks into the trap, just mind your eye
Paul: So the wombats safe and sound inside.
Dr Alan Horsup: It is, and not only have we activated the trap, but we’ve activated a switch here which turns the radio transmitter on that’ll send a signal back to camp
Paul: So back at camp you’ll know there’s something in the trap and it’s time to get out here.
Narration: As night falls, the wait for a wombat begins. They’ve been here a week already and so far they’ve only caught one wombat. One person each night stays up checking the radio signals from the traps every hour.
Bleep bleep bleep
This is the tell tale sign he’s looking for. This means the gates are down on one of the traps. Every time the alarm goes off Alan has to make the trek through the night, to see if they’ve been lucky. If it’s a wombat the whole camp will be woken up.
There’s nothing very big in there. Unfortunately this time it’s an echidna.
Paul: So echidnas are the most common thing you get in these traps?
Alan: They are actually, and imagine how well they can hang on to the trap if you’re not careful
Narration: It’s been like this every night for a week. Getting up at all hours for what turn out to be false alarms.
Bleep bleep bleep
Four hours later and another trap has gone off. Brian is waiting for word from Alan. Have they got a wombat this time?
Alan on radio: Are you on Channel?
Alan: Get everyone up, we’ve got a wombat.
Narration: Now it’s a race to get there. The longer the wombat is caught in the trap the more stressed it becomes. They have to get to the trap quickly.
Alan: Hey look at that
Paul: Oh wow, it’s bigger than I thought it would be
Alan: It’s a young one too - beautiful fur cover. It’s a female
Narration: First the wombat is anaesthetised in readiness for the thorough medical examination that’ll follow. This population breeds very slowly because there is an uneven sex ratio.
Dr Alan Horsup: The big problem with this population is there’s about two and a half males for every female
Narration: They check for a tattoo or microchip that indicates the animal has been trapped before. We’re in luck, it doesn’t have one, so it’s probably a young animal.
Dr Alan Horsup: I’d say she’s less than four years old.
Narration: This is fantastic news, a young animal that’s never been caught before indicates that the wombats are breeding. And better still this a female.
The wombat is thoroughly examined. Blood and hair samples are being taken for DNA analysis. The tiny population is very inbred, so they’re looking for signs of any new genetic material. All this examination and measuring will give the team a snapshot of how healthy the population is today.
A radio collar is fitted so they can track the animals in the future, and finally a microchip is inserted under the skin.
Dr Alan Horsup: She’s definitely a sub adult, isn’t she a beautiful animal
Narration: Hopefully this young wombat will be one of many that the team will get their hands on in the next couple of weeks.
Paul: So what happens now? Time to go home?
Dr Alan Horsup: Yeah - we put her in a recovery crate, and wait for her to be up and about before we let her go.
Narration: The crate is carried back to the burrow entrance so it’s just a short stagger back home. Once the wombat is awake enough, she is let out of the crate at her burrow entrance.
Paul : All up Alan we’re messing about in the middle of the night, why are we doing this?
Dr Alan Horsup: We’re trying to save this species Paul, we’ve only got 113 at last count, in a way it’s a disturbance to the animals but it’s a case of trying to find out as much as we can about them. How can we increase their numbers, how are they doing? That’s the important thing, is what we’re doing actually making any difference…and when you see a young animal like this come through, then you know, it gives you confidence.
Paul: So young female, good sign.
Alan: A young animal and a female is the best news we could have. This is great, this is the future.
Narration: So far it looks like the wombats are healthy and better still breeding. Northern hairy nosed wombat numbers have doubled in the last decade.
But they’ll need at least another 200 wombats to create a new population. That’s going to take another 10 years. Even after that they’ll need constant care, but this team think it’s worth it.
Dr Alan Horsup: It’s a unique animal. It’s the only tropical wombat. It’s the largest burrowing herbivorous mammal in the world. Probably one of the ten rarest mammals and its one you know which a lot of Australians don’t know so we’ve got a responsibility to get it back out there so people can see it and enjoy it and it can re-establish itself through its range.
- Reporter: Paul Willis
- Producer: Louise Heywood
Dr Alan Horsup
Senior Conservation Officer
Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
PO Box 3130
Rockhampton Shopping Fair
Ph: 07 4936 0549
Mob: 0419 642 545
Fax: 07 4936 2127
James Cook University
Townsville Queensland Australia
Ph: 07 4781 4881
DONATIONS CAN BE MADE TO:
Wombat Survival Fund
C/- Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service
PO Box 3130
Rockhampton Shopping Fair Qld 4701
Tel: (07) 4936 0511