Female wombats bite their prospective mates on the butt when they’re horny

The secret sex lives of wombats have now been exposed.

Female southern hairy-nosed wombats will pace and offer “rump bites” to males when they are ready to breed.

Those are the unusual findings from University of Queensland researchers said the behaviours are indicators that they are “in season.” That is, they are in the most fertile phase of their reproductive cycle.

All of it was captured on infrared camera and with urine samples.

And there’s a point to all the voyeurism.

Scientists are trying to better understand the southern hairy-nosed wombat to help the critically endangered northern species.

“With only about 200 northern hairy-nosed wombats remaining, being able to breed these animals may one day ensure the survival of the species,” associate professor Stephen Johnston said in a statement. “There has been no captive breeding of the northern hairy-nosed wombat, and even the southern species fails to breed regularly in captivity.”

Their results are published in the journal Reproduction, Fertility and Development.

Lady wombats even make this interesting noise.

(Sadly, there is no video released of the bum-biting in action.)

What happens now?

More research of course.

“We propose that further research is required to better understand the social structure and reproductive strategy of this species in the wild so that we can better evaluate the potential effect of social structure in the reproductive management of captive SHNWs,” the authors concluded.

Photos University of Queensland

About the author

Recovering newspaper reporter.

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