The world's rarest wombat has a new joey
The northern hairy nosed wombat is one of the rarest animals on Earth. Around 450 exist, all of them in Queensland, and in the 1980s the entire species was down to just 35. So when volunteer caretakers Anne and Corinne, reviewing trail camera photos from Richard Underwood Nature Refuge in the state's southwest, noticed a telltale bulge in a female's pouch this autumn, the discovery set off quiet celebrations across Australian conservation. The refuge, managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, protects one of only a handful of places these wombats call home.
The joey was around two or three months old when first photographed and is expected to poke its nose out of the pouch by October. Ecologists are following the mother through regular camera checks, and so far she is doing beautifully. Every birth counts enormously when a species numbers 450: as conservancy wildlife ecologist Ben Stepkovitch puts it, each new joey adds to the population and gives real hope that these wombats will "persist well beyond the near future." From 35 animals to 450 in four decades is one of Australia's great unsung recovery stories, written one pouch at a time.