Watch Our Animals online: Episode 17 Wombats

They are mammals. A female wombat's pouch opens backwards so that when mum is digging she doesn't cover her baby with sand. Because wombat babies live in their mother's pouch drinking her milk, wombats are marsupials. Baby wombats stay with their mum for about two years. They then have to look after themselves. Wombats have thick soft fur. Their strong legs and claws are good for digging burrows to live in. They are very shy. They are nocturnal animals. Most of the day they sleep in a burrow. In the evening or at night they go looking for food. They are herbivores – they like grasses, tree roots and soft mosses. To keep themselves clean they have a dust bath. They lie on their side and scoop sand over themselves. They can swim. Their teeth grow continuously, so if they break a tooth it just re-grows. Wombat droppings are called scats. Each wombat's scats have a different smell. They leave them outside their burrows. Scats help a wombat find its own burrow when it returns after a busy night looking for food. They also tell other wombats if a burrow is occupied.

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