Camera captures rare meeting between endangered wombat and echidna

A rare and lively encounter between a young wombat and an echidna has been caught on camera, delighting conservationists in Australia.

This active behaviour, captured on camera traps, is the work of the endangered northern hairy-nosed wombat (Laciorhinus kleftii) is proving successful.

At their lowest point in the late 1990s, with just 35 remaining in a small reserve in central Queensland, wombats were one of the rarest large mammals on the planet. Today, thanks to hard work, wombats' numbers have grown to around 400. In 2009, relocations began to the fenced Richard Underwood Sanctuary in southern Queensland, where around 15 wombats now live.

Andy Howe Howe of the Australian Wildlife Conservation Society in Newcastle, Australia, was sorting through 100 hours of footage recorded at the sanctuary when two clips caught his eye. The first, from early June, shows a northern hairy-nosed wombat baby, proving that the sanctuary's population has successfully raised young and that the pups are now foraging on their own. The wombats are well-groomed and at a healthy weight, Howe says.

Then, in footage taken a month later, he was seen with a young wombat and a short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatusThe echidna waddles around the frame, seemingly unfazed, while the wombat becomes increasingly agitated and throws himself into the dirt.

Tim Flannery A researcher at the Australian Museum in Sydney says he has never seen an interaction like this in his decades of experience studying mammals: “This is a nervous wombat and a happy echidna,” he says.

He says this is typical echidna behaviour, and that the animal's spine makes it difficult and dangerous to attack. For much of the video, the wombat points its tail at the echidna, a defensive posture in the tunnel where it presses the intruder against the roof of its burrow.

Flannery says it's “amazing” to see such natural, wild behaviour from a species so close to extinction. “It's very encouraging to see wombats thriving,” he says. Now that the transplant has proven successful, he suggests new populations be established elsewhere as soon as possible.

Before Europeans arrived, the species was found from northern Victoria through arid New South Wales and into central Queensland, and reestablishment of the species throughout its range would have major environmental benefits, Dr Flannery said.

“They're ecosystem engineers because they dig and burrow into the soil,” he says, “and their burrows provide shelter for other creatures during heat waves, droughts and fires.”