Wombat Protection Society
of Australia Ltd

Bulletin Number 8 - May 2007
 

Welcome to all our new members and associate members and to Clare Davis O.A.M. our new honorary member. Clare "pioneered" work with wombats going back decades and while less directly involved with them these days, Clare remains smitten with the obsession that wombats create. We are fairly sure this is incurable.

Wombat Watching

The inaugural "Wombat Watching" night went well with twelve intrepid wombat watchers leaving Quaama for Brogo around 8.00pm on May 5th and returning after seeing five wombats. Due to numbers, three vehicles were needed which meant the middle car didn't see wombats. We are very grateful to the occupants of that car who were delightfully positive about the experience, despite not seeing wombats and who joined the society. The society will recommend that a maximum of two cars or a small bus be used for wombat watching road tours as a result. It has begun publicity in one wombat area for farmers and others to apply to have their land listed as a potential "wombat watching" site. If you or people you know would like to become involved in "Wombat Watching", please contact the Society. One of our previous Bulletins, number 6 explained the rationales and goals of this program.

Wombat Training

The Society was pleased to be invited to an education day on Wombats run recently in NSW. "The Wonderful World of Wombats Workshop" hosted by Shirley Lack and based on Linda Dennis et.al's "A Guide to the Care Of Bare-Nosed Wombats" was well attended and received. What was particularly refreshing was the wealth of knowledge and observations about wombats that this forum enjoyed and the positive attitude to listening to and benefiting from real life experiences of wombat observers and carers generated by the forum. It firmly reinforced comments made in Bulletin 7 about the individual nature of wombats and the need to keep open and enquiring minds about all facets of their health and care.

What's In A Name

The Society is supporting a move to change the colloquial name for Vombatus Ursinus to the Bare-Nosed Wombat. It's scientific name Ursinus, means bear like, so to some extent this is a play on words, but it also links the common use name to the common use names for the other two species, the Northern and Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombats. Vombatus Ursinus has had an array of different colloquial names over time including naked nose, forest and common. Many members feel that the use of the word "Common" prejudices attitudes by implying that there are many of these animals. The Joey's pages this month provide a map showing their distribution that indicates they are most definitely not "common".

Once Were Wombats

We were sent photographs this month of what appeared to be wombat footprints from Queensland. These were worth investigating because the only known wombats in the area are the critically endangered 115 Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats in Epping State forest and these prints were from Middlemount, some distance away at a soon to be mine site. Emails flew as we tried to get someone who knew wombats to investigate. In the end Alan Horsup who manages the Northern Hairy-Nosed Sanctuary at Epping Forest was prepared to investigate. While the prints weren't wombats' we were impressed by the sender and the dedication of everyone who offered help to resolve this matter. The sender, Jake Grimshaw, was warned off taking photographs by his boss but was willing to risk losing his job to show Alan these prints. Good on you Jake.

The Society was also pleased to link up with Alan's work and that of the Wombat Foundation for the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats (see links on our site). We were also delighted to receive this picture from Alan for the Society to use.

A Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat
courtesy Alan Horsup

Mange Update

The Society has given its mange mapping exercise a permanent status. We are currently reviewing maps that will suit web based delivery of information coming from this exercise. In general, there appears to be areas of mange infestation throughout all wombat territory, with the exception of Epping State Forest. To ensure these few wombats remain parasite free those who undertake work within the sanctuary undergo strict hygiene routines. We have received case studies from people using Revolution, the dog spot-on that contains selamectin and Advocate containing imidacloprid and moxidectin to successfully control mange on wombats. We are also monitoring a number of case studies where Cydectin, a cattle pour on containing moxidectin alone is used and continue to monitor cases where Moxidectin is being used .The use of "self treatment" devices for delivering sulphur and oil or an acaricide in oil which may help wombats with mange are also being monitored. One case study where the device and sulphur and oil was used successfully has been received by the society. The wombat with mange was watched by a member over a period of three months. The member reports that the clinical signs of mange were fully resolved and hair grew back.

In a recent "device trial" where one was placed over a burrow of a wombat without mange, the device was pulled down overnight. You may want to treat the wombat but the wombat needs to want to be treated! Full details for making these devices and some precautionary advice is available from the Society. We congratulate Brian McCarthy for his idea of making a burrow based treatment system.

JOEY'S PAGES

Welcome to your third edition of the Joey's Pages.

Last time we asked you to fill in a map of Australia showing where wombats lived. Mahlia MacPherson Smith from NSW sent us a wonderful picture. She took a photograph of a map of Australia and used different coloured drawing pins to show the different species of wombats. Mahlia has won herself a Wombat Protection Society T-Shirt for her efforts. Well done Mahlia.

This is Mahlia's photograph.
It is a little hard to pick out the different coloured pins,
but she did very well and we'll develop her map
and put one like this on site soon.

Across the border of NSW into South Australia are two pins, one showing that some Bare-Nosed (also known as Naked-Nosed, Forest and Common) wombats live there as well as the the Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat. The one pin in Queensland marks where the 115 remaining Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombats live.

This month we have a very special job for you to do. The wombat joey in the pictures below is a Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat and she is a girl wombat. Jan and Bob Cleaver from South Australia are looking after her but as yet she has NO NAME.

We asked Jan and Bob if we could get some ideas from you, but you'll need to think fast!!!

Send in your suggestions by email or telephone us and we'll let Jan and Bob choose the name they think will suit her best.

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