Wombat spotted sharing burrow with fox in Hunter Valley NSW
A New South Wales farmer has revealed images of one of the rarer sights of the Australian bush - a wombat sharing its burrow with a fox.
The Hunter Valley farmer, who wished to remain anonymous, caught the room-sharing agreement on camera in 2017, but only recently sent them in to WWF-Australia after reading new research about wombat dens providing crucial shelter to other animals during bushfires.
The farmer said he had set out to track down a fox after seeing a wallaby killed on his property.
He placed a camera outside a burrow that had several partially-eaten carcases at its entrance.
"I trained the sensor camera at the burrow entrance to confirm there was a resident fox," he said.
"What I didn't expect was to record a wombat sharing its burrow with a predator. Everyone I've spoken to was amazed by this behaviour."
Wildlife experts said a wombat welcoming a predator into its home was very unusual.
However, evidence showed that the two animals were using the den at the same time, with the camera capturing the fox emerging one night, followed closely by the wombat.
The farmer humanely put down the fox.
Foxes, imported in the 1800s for hunting, are considered a pest species in Australia and kill an estimated 300 million native animals a year.
A post on the Mange Management Facebook group showed the more standard result of a fox attempting to intrude on a wombat's domains.
It's believed wombats use their hefty rumps to fatally crush the intruders against the walls or roof of the burrow.
A 2017 study of wombat burrows on South Australia's Wedge Island found wombats burrows were used by other species including black-footed rock-wallabies, brush-tailed bettongs, peninsula dragons, southern sand skinks, White's skinks and little penguins.
Some of these species occupied burrows at the same time as wombats.
The wombats on the NSW farmer's property were treated for mange and remain healthy.
These later snaps showed the wombats boldly crossing flooded land during heavy rain earlier this year.
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
