Facts About Wombats

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Wombats are lowly marsupial that look like a cross between a bear , a pig and agopher . They are built for digging , with short legs , compact capitulum , unretentive wide foundation and firm claws . Like kangaroos , koalas and other pouched mammal , they have a pocket . But a wombat ’s pouch is backward . And their poop is cube - shaped .

Size

Wombats are about as big as a medium - sizing dog , typically 30 inch ( 76 cm ) long . The common wombat weighs 55 to 88 lb . ( 25 to 40 kg ) , and the hirsute - nosed wombat weighs 42 to 71 lbs . ( 19 to 32 kilo ) , harmonise to theSan Diego Zoo .

Habitat

All wombat mintage live in Australia and Tasmania in muckle , forests and grasslands . Their homes are burrow , which consist of many tunnels and log Z’s chambers . Some tunnels in a burrow can reach up to 650 feet ( 200 meters ) in distance , according to the San Diego Zoo . Some wombats have several separate burrows that they inhabit in throughout the year , according to the University of Michigan’sAnimal Diversity Web(ADW ) .

Habits

Some wombats are social , while others are loner . For example , the common wombat spends most of its time alone , while the hairy - nosed wombat can hold out with up to 12 other wombat in its tunnel . A group of wombats is call a gang or settlement , according toNational Geographic .

All wombats are nocturnal and spend their night scrounge for food or digging . During insensate days , some wombats do come out of their tunnel to sunbathe and warm up . They do not rise tree diagram likekoalas , their approximate relative , but they are good swimmers , according to the Wombat Information Center .

Diet

Wombats are herbivores , which imply they only eat vegetation . Some common meals for a wombat include etymon , grasses , scrub , herbaceous plant and bark . They get most of their water from the food they eat and can live years without drinking water .

wombat have special enzymes in their stomachs to digest tough roughage , but even so , it still occupy around 14 days for a wombat to endure a repast .

Cubic poop

Awombat ’s faeces are forge like cubes . Wombats utilize their poop to pock their territory . They will place a poop cube on fall trees , fresh mushrooms and stone . Cubed shite wo n’t roll off , harmonize to Tasmanian Wildlife Management . [ National Geographic Video : Cubic Wombat Poo ]

Offspring

wombat typically mate during times when food is abundant . If there is a drouth and intellectual nourishment is not abundant , the wombat will not mate . Male wombats will fight for the right to mate with a female . The coarse - hirsute wombat will chase after a female person in circles until she slows down long enough that he can catch her to twin , according to the ADW . The female person will make a coughing noise as they are chase after .

A female wombat has a gestation stop of around 21 to 30 daylight . She gives birth to only one young at a meter every two year .

A babe wombat is called a joey . At birth , a joey only weighs 2 grams , and is about the size of it of a jellybean , agree to theWombat Information Center . The joey climbs into its mother ’s pouch right after birth to finish develop and stays there for around five month .

A wombat in grass.

Wombats are badger-sized burrowers and the closest living relative to koalas.

A wombat ’s pocket is backward ; it opens toward the bottom , instead of towards the chest of drawers . This prevents dirt and junk from figure while burrowing . A joey clamps down on its female parent ’s teat , which helps prevent it from falling out , according to the Wombat Information Center .

After five months , the joey will wax in and out of its mothers pouch for another few months . Wombats become fledged at 1.5 to 3 days and live on 5 to 15 years in the state of nature and over 20 age in zoological garden .

Classification/taxonomy

Here is the taxonomy of wombats , according to theIntegrated Taxonomic Information System(ITIS ) .

Kingdom : AnimaliaSubkingdom : BilateriaInfrakingdom : DeuterostomiaPhylum : ChordataSubphylum : VertebrataInfraphylum : GnathostomataSuperclass : TetrapodaClass : MammaliaSubclass : TheriaInfraclass : MetatheriaOrder : DiprotodontiaSuborder : VombatiformesFamily : VombatidaeGenera & species :

Conservation status

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) , only one type of wombat is jeopardise . TheNorthern hairy - nosed wombathas gained this eminence because it can only be found in a very small emplacement sleep together as Epping Forest National Park . The quality of that small habitat is also declining due to invading alien grasses . There are only 115 northerly hairy - nosed wombat left .