Wombat.
Wombat.
It is hard to imagine that this clumsy looking herbivore is the closest living relative to the Koala.
They both have one commonality and that being that they sleep for around 16 hours a day.
A nocturnal herbivore with poor eyesight the wombat is reliant on its sense of smell to find food and to navigate.
An oddity peculiar to the wombat is that whilst it is content to share its burrow it will not share its feeding grounds and they will mark out the boundary of the feeding grounds with scent and scats as a warning not to intrude.
In the event of an intruder a wombat will initially grunt at the intruder as a warning and if the intruder is not deterred then the wombat will attack it by biting at the ears and rump.
Using there ever growing incisors wombats will gnaw on materials such as bark or other solid material to wear down their teeth.
Their diet consists of grass, shoots, roots and shrubs and wombats can travel 3 kilometres in a night to feed.
Being marsupials wombats have pouches which open backwards to prevent the pouch becoming full of dirt during digging.
Wombats live in burrows which they did using their long claws and hind legs to extract the dirt.
A new born wombat will weigh in at just one gram and will be capable of leaving the pouch at 5 months of age and can fend for itself at 7 months.
Despite popular opinion wombat numbers are in decline and all species in Australia, with the exception of Victoria are protected.
Wombats are still regarded as an agricultural pest in Victoria.
Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.
Wombat.
Wombat.
It is hard to imagine that this clumsy looking herbivore is the closest living relative to the Koala.
They both have one commonality and that being that they sleep for around 16 hours a day.
A nocturnal herbivore with poor eyesight the wombat is reliant on its sense of smell to find food and to navigate.
An oddity peculiar to the wombat is that whilst it is content to share its burrow it will not share its feeding grounds and they will mark out the boundary of the feeding grounds with scent and scats as a warning not to intrude.
In the event of an intruder a wombat will initially grunt at the intruder as a warning and if the intruder is not deterred then the wombat will attack it by biting at the ears and rump.
Using there ever growing incisors wombats will gnaw on materials such as bark or other solid material to wear down their teeth.
Their diet consists of grass, shoots, roots and shrubs and wombats can travel 3 kilometres in a night to feed.
Being marsupials wombats have pouches which open backwards to prevent the pouch becoming full of dirt during digging.
Wombats live in burrows which they did using their long claws and hind legs to extract the dirt.
A new born wombat will weigh in at just one gram and will be capable of leaving the pouch at 5 months of age and can fend for itself at 7 months.
Despite popular opinion wombat numbers are in decline and all species in Australia, with the exception of Victoria are protected.
Wombats are still regarded as an agricultural pest in Victoria.
Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia.