First steps of baby wombat captured on film

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Mon, 10 Oct 2011 11:46a.m.

The baby wombat with its mother

The baby wombat with its mother

Australian rangers have captured a baby wombat on camera, taking its first, slightly wobbly, steps out of its burrow with its mother.

The video, shot by Queensland Parks and Wildlife, shows the wombat coming out into the open in night vision footage.

Fifteen wombats were introduced to the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge in the state of Queensland two years ago, to help boost numbers of the threatened hairy-nose wombat.

The team from Queensland Parks and Wildlife is working to save the species, and they are thrilled the programme is working.

"The fact that we have within two years got young coming out of the burrows is amazing, so we've exceeded all our expectations," ranger Dave Harper told local reporters.

In recent decades, habitat loss has caused populations of the hairy-nose wombats to dwindle and there are now less than 200 in the wild.

Wombat joeys, as the babies are called, spend the first 12 months of their lives protected inside the burrow.

APTN

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18 Oct 2011 02:51p.m.

Sandy wrote:

Well done Ozzys.!!!!!!! You cant win at Rugby but World Cup for the Wombat Programme. wonderful vid, fantastic that they are breeding and may be saved from extinction.