Common Wombat

(Vombatus ursinus)

This cute round Australian mammal digs underground burrows up to 65 feet long!

Like nearly every native Australian land mammal, it is a marsupial, meaning it raises its under-developed young externally in a pouch. The pouch opening in the Common Wombat faces backwards! (the opposite of a kangaroo). This adaptation is very useful for a burrowing animal; it insures that the pouch doesn’t fill with dirt when digging through the earth!

There is an unofficial holiday in Australia called Wombat Day on October 22.

Photo: Common Wombat grazing on grass in Wilsons Promontory National Park, Victoria, Australia