Southern hair-nosed wombat
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Southern hair-nosed wombat ( Lasiorhinus latifrons ) |
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| ( Owen , 1845) |
The Southern haarnasenwombat ( Lasiorhinus latifrons ) is a Beutelsäugerart from the family of Wombats (Vombatidae).
description
With a body length of 77 to 98 centimeters and a weight of 19 to 32 kilograms, the southern hair-nosed wombat is the smallest species of wombat. Like all wombats, it is characterized by its massive, bear-like build. The limbs are short and strong and end in claws suitable for digging. The head is large and wide, the eyes are small, but the ears are long and pointed. In contrast to the other species, their fur is soft and silky. The fur is gray to gray-brown in color.
distribution and habitat
This wombat lives in scattered occurrences in arid and semi-arid zones in southern Australia from the Nullarbor Desert to southeastern South Australia . In the southwest of New South Wales , this species was not discovered in small numbers until the late 1990s.
This species is well adapted to arid areas and lives in grasslands and open forests. The soil structure must be stable enough to support the structures, and sufficient reliable grass growth is a prerequisite.
Hair-nosed wombats are currently not maintained in Europe. It was previously held in Berlin, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Paris, Rome, Rotterdam, Basel, London and Budapest.
Way of life
These animals are nocturnal, they spend the day in spacious, self-dug buildings, where the atmosphere remains cool and humid during the hot time of the day. In the resting phases, the metabolism and body temperature are reduced in order to save water and energy. The building system is more social than that of naked-nosed wombats . Five to ten animals of both sexes live in one building system.
At night they go in search of food. The food mainly consists of perennial grasses (especially Stipa species) as well as herbs, roots and bark. The water requirement is covered by the food, rain or dew ingested. The species has not yet been observed drinking from water sources.
Reproduction
right: Southern hair- nosed wombat ( Lasiorhinus latifrons )
The reproduction is more seasonally adapted to the growth of the food grasses. The young are usually born between September and November. The gestation period is around 20 to 22 days, after which the newborns spend six to nine months in their mother's pouch. They are weaned at around one year and sexually mature at two to three years of age. Child mortality is very high, it is said that young animals need three good years in a row to survive, which is rare in arid areas. The high mortality is offset by a relatively high life expectancy, the maximum age of an animal in captivity was 24 years.
threat
After the colonization of Australia by the Europeans, the habitat of the southern hair-nosed wombat has declined, but not as drastically as the northern hair-nosed wombat . The reasons for this lie in the conversion of their habitat into pastures, in competition from introduced species and in the direct persecution of humans. In addition to being hunted as fur animals, they were also seen as a nuisance because of their digging activities that destroy fences. The total population is estimated at 64,000 to 130,000 animals.
The largest populations live in the Nullarbor Plain , where about 50,000-100,000 animals are found in South Australia alone . The stocks in the adjacent part of Western Australia are unknown. In the area of the Murray Lands , a region on the lower Murray River in South Australia, 10,000–15,000 animals seem to still live, although they have been subject to a dramatic 70% decline since 2002. Dry periods and diseases such as mange are suspected to be the cause . The stocks on the Yorke and Eyre Peninsula are highly fragmented. 25 years ago, 10,000 animals lived in the area of the Gawler Ranges . More recent figures are not available here.
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0801857899 .
- Arnfrid Wünschmann : The Plumpbeutler (Vombatidae) . A. Ziemsen Verlag, Wittenberg Lutherstadt 1970, ISBN 3-7403-0210-0 .
- Steve Van Dyck, Ronald Strahan (Eds.): The Mammals of Australia . 3. Edition. Reed New Holland, Sydney et al. 2008, ISBN 978-1-877069-25-3 , pp. 204-206.
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1] on Zootierliste.de; accessed on June 8, 2015
- ↑ Lasiorhinus latifrons in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008 Posted by: D. Taggart, T. Robinson, 2008. Accessed November 8 2012th
Web links
- Lasiorhinus latifrons in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008 Posted by: D. Taggart, T. Robinson, 2008. Accessed January 2 of 2009.