Editing Wombat (section)

===History===
Depictions of the animals in [[rock art]] are exceptionally rare, though examples estimated to be up to 4,000 years old have been discovered in [[Wollemi National Park]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/01/1056825399651.html |first=Paola |last=Totaro |title= Rock art find makes Stonehenge seem recent |work= Sydney Morning Herald |date= 2 July 2003}}</ref> The wombat is depicted in aboriginal [[Dreamtime]] as an animal of little worth. The mainland stories tell of the wombat as originating from a person named Warreen whose head had been flattened by a stone and tail amputated as punishment for selfishness. In contrast, the Tasmanian aboriginal story first recorded in 1830 tells of the wombat (known as the ''drogedy'' or ''publedina'') the great spirit Moihernee had asked hunters to leave alone. In both cases, the wombat is regarded as having been banished to its burrowing habitat.<ref name="Woodford2012">{{cite book|author=James Woodford|title=The Secret Life of Wombats|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fg_KIKj7fXsC&pg=PA52|date=30 January 2012|publisher=Text Publishing Company|isbn=978-1-921834-90-5|page=7}}</ref> Estimates of wombat distribution prior to European settlement are that numbers of all three surviving species were prolific and that they covered a range more than ten times greater than that of today.<ref name="Triggs2009"/>

[[File:A235, Ballarat Wildlife Park, Ballarat, Australia, wombats, 2007.JPG|thumb|right|[[Common wombat]] and joey eating from a bowl at a zoo]]
After the ship [[Sydney Cove (1796 ship)|''Sydney Cove'']] ran aground on [[Clarke Island, Tasmania|Clarke Island]] in February 1797, the crew of the salvage ship ''[[Francis (1793)|Francis]]'' discovered wombats on the island.<ref name=vombatidae>{{cite book |title=Vombatidae |last1=Wells |first1=R.T. |editor1-first=D.W. |editor1-last=Walton |others=Richardson, B.J. |year=1989 |publisher=AGPS Canberra/Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts – Commonwealth of Australia |isbn=978-0-644-06056-1 |url=http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/publications/fauna-of-australia/ |access-date=30 December 2009 |page=4 |chapter=Volume 1B Mammalia |chapter-url=http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/abrs/publications/fauna-of-australia/pubs/volume1b/32-ind.pdf }}</ref> A live animal was taken back to [[Port Jackson]].<ref name=vombatidae/> [[Matthew Flinders]], who was travelling on board the ''Francis'' on its third and final salvage trip, also decided to take a wombat specimen from the island to Port Jackson. [[John Hunter (Royal Navy officer)|Governor John Hunter]] later sent the animal's corpse to [[Joseph Banks]] at the [[Literary and Philosophical Society]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/2009/01/the_wombat_trail_1.html |title=The 'wombat' trail – David Nash |author=Simpson, J. |date=16 January 2009 |work=Transient Languages & Cultures |publisher=The University of Sydney |access-date=30 December 2009 |archive-date=6 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106085636/http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/elac/2009/01/the_wombat_trail_1.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> to verify that it was a new species. The island was named Clarke Island after William Clark.<ref name=monograph>Nash, M. "[http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/archaeology/department/publications/MAMARS/MAMARS_PDF/Mike_Nash_Thesis.pdf Maritime Archaeology Monograph and Reports Series No.2 – Investigation of a Survivors Camp from the Sydney Cove Shipwreck] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303180536/http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/archaeology/department/publications/MAMARS/MAMARS_PDF/Mike_Nash_Thesis.pdf |date=3 March 2016 }}." Master of Maritime Archaeology Thesis. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, South Australia. 2004. Accessed 30 December 2009.</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Record of Tasmanian nomenclature, with dates and origins |last=Moore-Robinson |first=J. |year=1911 |publisher=The Mercury Printing Office – Hobart, Tasmania |page=28 |url=http://ia351419.us.archive.org/attachpdf.php?file=%2F1%2Fitems%2Frecordoftasmania00mooriala%2Frecordoftasmania00mooriala.pdf |access-date=30 December 2009}}</ref>

Wombats were classified as vermin in 1906, and a bounty was introduced in 1925.<ref name="Triggs2009"/>{{rp|103}} This and the removal of a substantial amount of habitat have greatly reduced their numbers and range.<ref> {{Cite journal |last1=Thorley |first1=Rowan |last2=Old |first2=Julie M.| date=2020 |title=Distribution, abundance and threats to bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus) |journal=Australian Mammalogy |volume=42 |issue=3 |page=249 |language=en |doi=10.1071/AM19035|doi-access=free }}</ref>