Marsupial Rave: Wombats have fur that glows in the dark

Have you ever seen a wombat under a black light? Not many people have, it seems – it’s only recently that scientists have discovered that wombat fur is actually biofluorescent, meaning it absorbs blue light and then re-emits it as the color green. The same investigation found that echidnas, possums and other mammals are biofluorescent.

An accidental discovery revealed that marsupials must love a good rave

It was just a couple of weeks ago that American researchers at the Field Museum accidentally discovered that platypuses glow dark purple when UV light hits the particular mammal’s fur. Now, a new creature can join that enlightened club: the wombat.

It has long been known that biofluorescence occurs in some insects and marine creatures, but no one has really thought about verifying the pink glow phenomenon in mammals. Of course, everyone was pretty stunned and it turned out that biofluorescence in mammals is much more common than we thought. At least among the Australian marsupials.

Driven by the fortuitous discovery of biofluorescent platypus fur, the curators at the Western Australian Museum decided to shine UV light on some of their museum specimens.

To their surprise, of the two dozen mammals in their collection, about a third of them had bright fur. This includes the platypus, echidna, bandicoots, bilbies, possums, some bats, and the iconic wombat.

Well this is great. After all that hype about fluorescent platypuses, I checked a couple of dead local beasts with my UV lamp. Oriental barred bandicoots glow pink under UV rays, but sugar gliders don’t. (My crappy phone camera doesn’t do it justice …) pic.twitter.com/49wlwY5DWm

– TMT (@t_mcachan) November 22, 2020

Most of these animals, including wombats, are nocturnal or crepuscular (active at dawn or dusk). So perhaps biofluorescence can improve their survival, especially since ultraviolet light is more diffuse at dusk and dawn.

“Perhaps they are able to see much more than we are able to see,” said Kenny Travouillon, curator of the Western Australian Museum in Mammalogy. Science notice.

“Predators don’t seem to shine. I think this is because if predators could be seen, they would lose all chances of catching their prey, “he added.

Additionally, many marsupials are nocturnal, so perhaps something else could explain the evolutionary push for biofluorescence. Since these observations were made in museum specimens on a small sample size, perhaps field investigations could provide more answers. In the future, the Australian Museum researchers want to do just that with the help of different lights.