hairy-nosed wombats: when, where, why, how many, and what?
TRANSCRIPT
Hairy-nosed Wombats: When, where, why, how many, and what?
Michael Swinbourne (PhD student, University of Adelaide)
Supervisors: Bertram Ostendorf, David Taggart
Southern hairy-nosed wombat Northern hairy-nosed wombat
Presentation Outline
• Distribution at the time of European settlement
– Changes over time
• Current distribution
• Use of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to map the underground morphology of warrens
Deniliquin
St George
Epping Forest
Nullarbor / Far West Coast Gawler Ranges
Eyre Peninsula
Murraylands
Yorke Peninsula
Distribution of Hairy-nosed Wombats
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus krefftii)
Distribution of Hairy-nosed Wombats
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus krefftii)
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus krefftii)
1836 - 18701870 - 1920
Distribution of Hairy-nosed Wombats
100 km
Distribution of Hairy-nosed Wombats in the NSW Riverina
Wakool
Tuppal
Jerilderie
Finley
Kershaw (1908)(Peers (1871))
“.....For a considerable time past an incessant war has been waged on the wombats, and in a year or so the race will be exterminated. They are harmless creatures, but the homes they dig in the earth are greatly fancied by rabbits, and once firmly established therein it is a difficult matter to dislodge them. The homes of the wombats are being filled up and made rabbit-proof all over the district, and it is to prevent any being kept open, or the formation of new ones, that the destruction of the wombats has been decreed.....”
- The Australasian 10 June 1893, p. 7
Timeline to Local Area Extinction
• 1859 – Jerilderie gazetted as a town
• 1879 – Rabbits arrive in area
• 1884 – Wombats declared noxious pests
– 5 /- bounty per wombat scalp
• 1885 – Over 1,000 wombats destroyed on one property alone in one year
• 1897 – Wombat sightings in area ‘rare’
• 190X – Wombats believed extinct in region
Epping Forest
St George / Moonie River
200 km
Thomas Mitchell (1846)
Ludwig Leichardt (1847)
Mt Douglas
Carnarvon National ParkTambo
Injune / Mt Hutton
Distribution of Hairy-nosed Wombats in Queensland
Distribution of Hairy-nosed Wombats on Eyre Peninsula
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus krefftii)
Fossil assemblages since LGM (Lasiorhinus spp.)
Distribution of Hairy-nosed Wombats
Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats in the West
Questions ??
Implications for Wombat Conservation / Management
• Rabbits– Harmful, but control actions worse– Biological controls
• disease, reintroduce native predators (?)
• Hairy-nosed wombats may be quite sensitive to climate changes– Next 50 – 100 years
• Higher temperatures• Reduced winter / spring rainfall• Increased drought frequency and duration• Vegetation changes and introduced weeds