Researcher: Andrew Woolnough
The Northern Hairy-Nosed wombat, Lasiorhinus krefftii, is Australia's most endangered marsupial and indeed one of the world's most endangered mammals. The total population is estimated at only 65 individuals.
The Northern Hairy-Nosed (NHN) wombat is one of three species of wombat, along with the Southern Hairy-Nosed wombat and the Common wombat. It is arguably the largest of the three (see left), with the largest individual recorded at 39.8kg. The NHN wombat is found in the semi-arid zone of Central Queensland, an area frequented by drought and high temperatures. Like the other two species, the NHN spends most of it's time in burrows (see below), emerging in the cool of night to feed predominantly on grasses. Wombats in general are anti-social animals, living in their burrows by themselves avoiding social behaviour for most of the year. Each wombat will live in and maintain a number of burrows, marking their "ownership" with a splash of urine and a pile of unusually cuboid faecal pellets (see below).
The NHN wombat is the subject of an Australian Nature Conservation Agency (ANCA) Recovery Plan. The primary objective of the Recovery Plan is to save the NHN wombat from the brink of extinction. As part of the plan, a number of research projects have been completed and others are currently underway or have been outlined. These include:
The feeding ecology of the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat is a PhD project at James
Cook University. The aims of this project are:
For further information about the Northern Hairy-nosed wombat contact Andrew Woolnough: bsapw@jcu.edu.au
