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Australia has the worst mammal extinction rate in the world and one significant driver of this is introduced species such as foxes and cats. In Australia, foxes and cats combined kill more than 1.4 billion mammals per year. Wandiyali-Environa Wildlife Sanctuary, located just south-west of Queanbeyan, is taking important steps to conserve and restore these mammals to their sanctuary.

Wandiyali is working in collaboration with Australia’s Safe Haven Network to protect naturally occurring native mammals as well as translocated mammals, such as the Eastern Quoll (Dasyurus viverrinus) and the Eastern Bettong (Bettongia gaimardi). This is achieved by placing these mammals in fenced enclosures capable of excluding cats and foxes.

Wandiyali’s pest proof fence has a bracketed floppy top to prevent pests scaling the fence and an expanded base held down by the vegetative ground cover to stop pests from digging under (Figure 1). This fence can keep out a large range of exotic species as well as keep in the protected native species.

However, this is one powerful animal which cannot be kept either in or out. Wombats!

How can wombats be managed in a conservation area?

For fence owners all over Australia, wombats have long been a threat. At Wandiyali, holes dug by wombats create gaps in the fence that allow unwanted species entrance to the Safe Haven and protected animals to escape. Additionally, the damage to the fence by wombats requires costly maintenance. However, it is important that wombats are not excluded from the wildlife sanctuary as they play an important role in the ecosystem by increasing nutrient cycling, facilitating water absorption, and softening soil so seedlings can be established.

This why the staff at Wandiyali are choosing to work with these animals, rather than against them. They are achieving this by building wombat gates. When the wombats inevitably dig their way through the pest proof fence the rangers and conservationists leave these holes and monitor wombat movements through the fence. Wombats like to follow the same paths when moving between their burrows and feeding areas. Once the staff are certain that a spot is favoured by the wombats a wombat gate is put in place (Figure 2). This is to ensure that a gate is being put in place where the wombats are most likely to use it.

These gates are heavy vertically swinging gates that exploit the strength of the wombats. The gate is designed so that wombats can easily travel in and out, but prevents unwanted animals from doing so. Wombat gates are proven to be largely successful in providing passage for wombats as well as other native species such as echidnas, while restricting passage for browsing macropods and pests such as foxes.

Wombat gates do not exclude wombats from the landscape and providing a cost-effective solution to pest fence maintenance, which is critical in eliminating unwanted exotic species from wildlife sanctuaries.

This management strategy requires time and patience but the lessons to be learned is, it’s sometimes easier and more beneficial to work with natures habits rather than against them.

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