With just 315 northern hairy-nosed wombats left, conservationists are looking to map their underground homes
www.abc.net.au
With only 315 of the marsupials left, conservationists are using subsurface mapping to investigate the wombats' burrows in a bid to find potential new habitats for the critically endangered species.

In the middle of the southern Queensland bush, a man in a high-vis orange shirt looks starkly out of place as he slowly pushes a strange four-wheeled machine across the uneven, scrubby landscape.

The northern hairy-nosed wombat is one of the world’s most endangered animals.

The lawnmower-looking device is covered in screens and sensors, and each push over the grassy scrub sends pulsating radio waves underground.

Today, their population has grown to more than 300.

“If there’s a drought or a catastrophic fire at Epping, that’s where the majority of the animals are,” he says.

More sites planned Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) has secured a third site at Powrunna State Forest, also near St George, with plans to transfer a wombat population within the next couple of years.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    2·
    10 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    In the middle of the southern Queensland bush, a man in a high-vis orange shirt looks starkly out of place as he slowly pushes a strange four-wheeled machine across the uneven, scrubby landscape.

    To the untrained eye, it looks like Max Thomas is searching for gold or mowing the grass as the sun shines down on him on this 30-degree winter’s day near St George.

    “It’s the largest burrowing herbivore in the world,” explains Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) field ecologist Andy Howe.

    The lawnmower-looking device is covered in screens and sensors, and each push over the grassy scrub sends pulsating radio waves underground.

    “We’re using a multi-array, ground-penetrating radar system that shoots radio waves into the ground, and it records a signal coming back up,” Mr Watson says.

    Queensland’s Department of Environment and Science (DES) has secured a third site at Powrunna State Forest, also near St George, with plans to transfer a wombat population within the next couple of years.

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