Australia. Guide to Australia

Wombats (Vombatidae) - A family of marsupials dvureztsovyh, living in the states South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Квинсленд and Tasmania.

Wombats - digging holes herbivores, resembling small bears, reach a length of 70 до 120 cm and weight of the 20 �before45 kg. trunk wombat arranged compactly, limbs short and strong, on each of them five fingers, of which is crowned with four large outer claws, adapted for digging the earth. The tail is short, large head gives the impression of a slightly flattened laterally, eyes are small.

Jaws and teeth of a wombat exhibit similarities with rodents, in the upper and lower row in a pair of wombats leading cutting teeth, angled teeth are missing. Do wombats fewest teeth of marsupials - 12.

Wombats - the largest of modern mammals, engaged in digging and spending most of their lives underground, distributed in different habitats, but need to be suitable for digging holes earth. Their sharp claws, they dig in the ground small living cave, sometimes form complex tunnel systems, reaches about 20 meters in length and 3,5 meters in depth. If the cross sections of individuals, caves can be used at different times by different wombat. Wombats are active at night, when they go in search of food. During the day they rest in their shelters.

The adult wombat almost no natural enemies, except dingoes. The rear part of the body wombat extremely hard because of the thick skin, cartilage and bone, and in case of danger they, Turning back to, block his hole.

The territory is marked with feces and dwellings, and protects your site wombat sometimes quite aggressively. At the sight of the intruder males dangerously shaking their heads from side to side, and moo. Often this is enough, to drive the invading. However, sometimes it comes to fights, wombats which can cause serious injury to each other. It does also hit his head - butting, like a sheep or goat. If a dog gets into its burrow, He was waiting for her, on the spot, and then tries to corner, to the wall of the hole, and there to strangle her.

At short distances wombats can reach speeds of up to 62 km / h, when you need to escape from danger, wombat good swimmer and can climb trees, and burrow into the ground.
Wombats eat young shoots of grass, plant roots, Mosses, mushrooms and berries.
Split upper lip wombats can accurately choose what, what they eat. Thanks to her, front teeth can reach right down to the ground and cut even the smallest shoots. An important role in the choice of food in the active sense of smell plays a night wombats.

Wombats metabolism is very slow and effective. To digest food, they need to 14 Days. Wombats - the most economical water consumers of all mammals, After the camel: enough for them all 22 ml of water per kilogram of body weight per day. Even perfectly adapted to the conditions of animals in Australia, like a kangaroo, Water consumption is four times. Wombats do not tolerate cold.
Wombats breed throughout the year all, except for dry areas, where their breeding season soon. Bags for females turned back, to digging into them from getting land. Despite that, that females have two nipples, both born and brought up only one cub. Offspring from six to eight months growing in the mother and in the bag for next year remains close.

Wombats reach sexual maturity at the age of two years. Their life expectancy in nature reaches 15 Years, in captivity they sometimes live up to 25.
Wombats family includes three modern species, combining two kinds of:

* Sherstonosye wombats (Lasiorhinus)

* Queensland Wombat (Lasiorhunus krefftii)

* Long-haired wombat (Lasiorhunus latifrons)

* Golonosye wombats (Vombatus)

* Short-haired wombat (Vombatus ursinus)

*Salamatova wombat (Vombatus salamatus)

Also known five extinct genera wombats.

Wombats appeared about 18 миллионов лет назад, in the Miocene. Closest relatives are wombats - members of the family of marsupials bears (million years ago id="tr_95" data-token="0KEg0L3QuNC80Lgg0YMg0LLQvtC80LHQsNGC0L7QsiDQuNC80LXRjtGC0YHRjyDQvNC90L7Qs9C-0YfQuNGB0LvQtdC90L3Ri9C1INGB0YXQvtC00YHRgtCy0LAg0LIg0YHRgtGA0L7QtdC90LjQuCDQt9GD0LHQvtCy" data-source="">С ними у вомбатов имеются многочисленные сходства в строении зубов). С ними у вомбатов имеются многочисленные сходства в строении зубов, Skull and sperm. However,, there are a number of morphological differences, indicating, that evolutionary lines diverged koalas and wombats about 36 миллионов лет назад.

Even more closely related to wombats was diprotodon, huge representative of rhino-sized marsupials, extinct only about 40 thousands of years ago.
After the settlement of Australia by Europeans wombats area decreased significantly. The reasons for this were the destruction of their habitat, competition with imported species (in particular, with domestic cat) and hunting for wombats. From Queensland wombat today there are only 118 copies, living in a small nature reserve in Queensland. The other two species are more common and are not yet endangered.