The Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat

Appearance
The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat has a thick coat of fine, silky fur. It has a large snout, which is covered by thick short brownish gray coloured hair. It has a broad large head and pointy ears that have patches of white hair near the tips. The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat has a short tail about 5cm in lenght. It has short legs to walk with a shuffling stride. The ears are small and rounde. The wombat has a rounded body shape. A wombat has claws to dig in a unique way. The wombat first makes five to seven swipes with one claw and then changes over to start a series of sripes. Once the dirt has been loosened the wombat pushes the dirt under itself with its front claws, shoving backwards out of the tunnel with its bottom.

Weight
It weighs from 19-34kg(42-68lb).
Length
Its lengh of head and body is 100cm(40 inches).

Eating and diet habits
The Northern Hairy-nosed wombat is a herbivore. It has a diet of grass, leaves, roots, sprouts and bark of trees. The most common species of grass that the wombat eats are the Poa and the Tussock. The Northern Hairy-nosed wombats most favorite grasses are Spear Grass and Tussock Grass. It rarely eats Weeping Grass and Reed Bent Grass. The wombats most popular feeding grounds are grassy creek and river banks. The wombat rarely drinks from creeks it drinks moisture out of grass and can drink nearly a litre in 3-4 minutes.

Predators and dangers
Dingo's, wild dogs and foxes sometimes take the wombats burrows, but the wombat normaly crushes their skulls. Wombats get angry when predators come near their burrow and will normaly fight them off.

Enviroment
The Northern Hairy-nosed wombats burows can be as deep as one foot. The burrow gives the wombat protection from predators, bushfires and provides a cool comfort for the wombat. The entrance is usually very large, both the major and medium burrow entrances are generally at least a metre high and half a metre wide. Most of the roots, trees or other plants help to support the entrance. Innumerable major and medium burrows are dug near or on a sloping ground. The burrows are isolated or join up in a series of networks of three to four.

Remaining Locations
The Yepoon Forest in Northern Queensland.

Numbers
There are less than 70 of them left and all live in a remnant habit in Queensland.

Problems

It has been hunted by early settlers and Aboringines for meat.
People have killed them by poison them with poisoned grains and shooting because they have dug under fences so sheep can get out.
Overgrazing cattle and sheep.
Land clearing which went up and up the mountains so they had to put up with extreme colds in the mountians whcih made many die and loss of habit.
Road deaths
They are not successful in breeding in habit that is a major problem.

Solutions

If the caught wombats are transfered from farms to national parks and forest areas they can not damage fences anymore.
Put up electric fences to keep them out of farms so they do not need to be shot.
The wombat is given complete protection in the Yepoon Forest which is an enclosure that does not allow entry of domestic animals.
Study the breeding habits of them so we can set up a successful breeding plan to bring back their numbers.
inform the public about threatened species issues.
encourage habitat retention and restoration.
encourage the community-based collection of more information about the species and its habitat.
ongoing habitat management.
ongoing vermin control and eradication.
translocation to other sites.
captive breeding and establishing new colonies.
genetic assessment of all populations.
support your local environment groups.
raise money for the rehabilitation of sites for Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats.
learn more about endangered animals, particularly those native to your area.
be a responsible pet owner so they do not impact on Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats or other wildlife.
help in the eradication of foxes, cats and rabbits.
protect remnant native vegetation under Heritage Agreement and by excluding stock .
revegetate cleared land with indigenous plants.

Solutions to main problems have their own page.