Willy Wombat

Willy wants to investigate parklands around the world, but would like to make his way back to Victoria, Australia eventually. He would love to have his photo taken near a peaceful spot for a burrow. Please keep him moving without long delays.

The wombat is the largest burrowing mammal whose closest relative is the koala. Wombats spend two-thirds of their life underground, and are mainly nocturnal and essentially solitary animals. The common wombat is shaped somewhat like a barrel with a powerful stocky body, flattened head and rump, short ears, beady eyes and a bare round snout. Strongly clawed fore paws loosen the soil, and then the hind limbs shove the soil back and out of the burrow. They have excellent hearing and sense of smell. Their fur is coarse, black-silver, and grey to grey-brown in colour and they weigh up to 40kg. Wombats’ teeth have no roots and keep growing throughout their lives. The other two of the three species of wombat are endangered. They are the northern hairy-nosed wombat, which is critically endangered, and the southern hairy-nosed wombat. Wombats breed all year round and have one offspring per year (most births are in the winter months). The bean size young uses its strong front legs to crawl into the mother’s pouch where it stays for between six and ten months. The pouch opens towards the rear and contains two teats but usually only one young is born at a time. It practices digging in its mother’s burrow before leaving at about 18 months old. They become sexually mature after 2 years. Their diet consists of native grasses, herbs, roots of trees and shrubs. The common wombat lives in the forests and woodlands often in mountainous areas of South Eastern Australia. They live in burrows under the ground usually on a hillside or bank. Wombats will wade into water to soak themselves especially in the warmer months. The burrow protects the wombat from heat, cold, rain and bushfires. Medium burrows are from 2 to 5 metres in length, major burrows with bed chambers can be up to 20 meters long. Wombats visit each others burrows if their home ranges overlap. The wombat's natural predators are man, dingoes, feral and domestic dogs.