The farmer said he had set out to track down a fox after seeing a wallaby killed on his property."I trained the sensor camera at the burrow entrance to confirm there was a resident fox," he said.
"What I didn't expect was to record a wombat sharing its burrow with a predator. Everyone I've spoken to was amazed by this behaviour."4 of 10However, evidence showed that the two animals were using the den at the same time, with the camera capturing the fox emerging one night, followed closely by the wombat.Foxes, imported in the 1800s for hunting, are considered a pest species in Australia and kill an estimated 300 million native animals a year.
It's believed wombats use their hefty rumps to fatally crush the intruders against the walls or roof of the burrow.A 2017 study of wombat burrows on South Australia's Wedge Island found wombats burrows were used by other species including black-footed rock-wallabies, brush-tailed bettongs, peninsula dragons, southern sand skinks, White's skinks and little penguins.The wombats on the NSW farmer's property were treated for mange and remain healthy.