Australia is home to many marsupials, in addition to the kangaroos and koalas we are familiar with, there is another creature that is rarely seen by locals, it is a wombat.
Although wombats have bears in their names, they are very closely related to bears, and they belong to marsupials like other local marsupials, while bears belong to true beast creatures like humans.
There are three species of wombats, namely queensland furstreak wombats, South Australian fursaked wombats, and Tasmanian wombats. They are characterized by a short tail, feed on plants, are diurnal and nocturnal, and are good at digging holes.
They will dig complex deep holes in the ground, and these caves will save many animals in the fire, and when the fire comes, some koalas, birds, etc. will burrow into the wombat's cave to escape.
However, the most amazing thing about wombats is not these, but that they will pull cubes and become more fierce when courting, so what is going on?
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > wombat droppings</h1>
For scientists studying wombats, it's easy to find wombats, just look around for their droppings. The feces of wombats are very recognizable, and their feces are not the shape we often see, but a cube.
The original explanation for this was that wombats have a square shape, so they pull out cubic feces. But this claim was quickly rejected. Today's theory is that the cube is formed by the irregular intestines of wombats.
The researchers found that the different elastic features of the intestinal walls of wombats allowed their feces to change from regular cylinders to cubes. In addition, wombats eat mainly high-fiber plants, and the water they consume every day is obtained from plants, and only in special cases will they look for water. As a result, their feces are very dry, which also allows their feces to remain square.
Of course, in some areas with a high water content of plants, wombats' feces will also show irregular circles. Don't think wombats' droppings are disgusting, in fact, people who have smelled them say that their droppings have a faint grassy smell, and some people even propose to use it as an air freshener.
Their feces are unusually dry and fiber-rich, so some have also proposed using their feces as fuel, packing fillers, or even giving their feces directly as gifts. Of course, it is not known whether the person who received this gift will think it is a shock.
The advantage of cube feces is that they are not easy to roll, and wombats have an unusually sensitive sense of smell and territorial awareness, and they mark their territory through feces. The stronger the individual, the more they pull their feces in a conspicuous position; and the weaker the individual, they tend to look for an inconspicuous place to use as a toilet.
This way, when other wombats pass by, they can know their tracks through their droppings.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > wombat's ass</h1>
For wombats, their butts are their shields. Cute wombats have many predators in the local area, such as foxes and dingoes that are smaller than them. In order to avoid predators, wombats often use the way of diurnal and nocturnal outflow, of course, diurnal nocturnal outpost is also conducive to their body temperature regulation, their ability to regulate body temperature is not strong, in the high temperature environment is easy to die of heat stroke, only in the cool night they will come out to move.
When wombats crawl out of their burrows, they tend to come out backwards, exposing their butts to the outside world first. In this way, even if there are predators, their thick butts can resist predators.
In addition, when they encounter predators, they will also quickly flee to the nearest cave and block the entrance to the cave with their butts so that predators cannot enter.
In most cases, wombats are more docile and cute, they will warn each other by roaring, and generally the other party will leave when they hear this sound to avoid conflict. But during mating season, males become tyrants, chasing all females around them.
Female wombats go into heat every two years or so, and the duration of estrus is very short, with a true effective time of only about 13 hours. Also, wombats with cubs will not be in heat, so some males will also attack the cubs in order to make the females estrus as soon as possible.
Because females have very short estrus times, males will chase after females and nibble on their butts to see if they are ready. Some also try to stabilize them by biting them. Females' butts are very thick and rough, and general biting will not hurt them.
However, when the female is not ready, they will kick each other off with their strong hind legs, and only when they are ready can the male return to the cave with them to reproduce, the male will leave after mating, and they are not involved in raising the offspring.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summary</h1>
Although australia has been the place where they have lived for generations, the influx of humans and the flood of real mammals such as rabbits have made their living environment precarious, and the Queensland fursned wombats are on the verge of extinction.
Whenever we see that some small animals are on the verge of extinction before we are familiar with them, we will secretly reflect on whether we have not done enough with animals, and perhaps only if everyone realizes the importance of the environment, we can live in harmony with these little ones.