Wombats

· A wombat is a marsupial mammal meaning it carries its baby in its pouch on the outside of its tummy. The baby (which is called a joey) is born really tiny and crawls into its mother's pouch. The joey lives in its mother's pouch till its quite large. Even when it's quite large it still drinks milk from a teat in its mother's pouch.

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· Wombats are more closely related to the koala than to any other living marsupial

· Both females have pouches that open rearwards (unlike kangaroos)

· Common wombats are solitary and largely nocturnal, sheltering during the day in burrows. Every night, wombats can graze from 3-8 hours and can travel for many kilometres looking for food

· Wombats are herbivorous, they mainly eat at night - particularly native grasses and sedges and eating the roots of trees and shrubs

· Wombats are large, heavily built marsupials - an adult can weight from 26kg to 40kg. They are usually a metre long from nose to tail and about 35cm high

· Wombats live mainly in forest areas but may also be found in woodlands and coastal shrub areas

· Wombats are a protected species, there are still some areas particularly in Victoria where they are shot as vermin

· There are three species of Wombats. The most numerous and widespread is the Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus ). This animal is found from the Queensland/New South Wales border, around the band through to South Australia

· The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latrifrons) is an dry climate animal and only lives in a few areas of Southern Australia and Western Australia. It is well adapted to it's harsh environment where it must survive without water in high temperatures. The available food tends to be fibrous and low in water and protein. It lives in very large warrens where the atmosphere is cool and humid during the hot daytime. Its body temperature falls to conserve both energy and water

· The third species is the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) which is considered close to extinction. The fossil record indicates that this animal was once widespread in inland Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. These animals died out in a drought early in the 1900s. This was probably not due to drought alone but to competition from introduced grazing animals such as cattle and sheep. The Wombats have a narrower preference of food species. In 1971 there were only 35 individuals counted, but 1995 there were about 80

· Wombats dig very big holes. Their burrows may extend up to 20 or 30m long. They are usually made by digging into a hillside or creek slope. They are dug with the short flattened claws of the strong front legs. The back legs are used to pushed loose earth and rocks out of the way.