Wombats

Wombats, an Australian marsupial, are about a meter (3') in length and live in deep complex burrows. They are night feeders.  It is unusual to see a wild wombat outside a burrow feeding during the day (although they will bask in the afternoon sun on porches outside the entrance to their burrows).

Very rarely I will see them about on a very cloudy day - like this one late last week - feeding with their eyes firmly shut.

This fellow felt me coming, and ran to the entrance of his burrow. He waited until I left before returning to feed.

While these seem ponderous, they are capable of inflicting serious injury.  Inside their burrows, they can kill by crushing or kicking. As a child I was told terrible stories of lost children who had attempted to explore a burrow - one of the great attainable mysteries of a kid living in the bush.

These commonly get a mange - and can loose a lot of their fur. This fellow is in the early stages of regrowth with tufts of the old fur clearly visible.

Peter Quinton
Palerang
March 2015