Tasmanian Wombat.

The Common Wombat is a rather splendid animal - while they are undoubtably unaware that they are the worlds largest hole dwelling herbivore, they cannot be unaware that people like standing near them!

In some places you can track down a wombat on its evening wander by looking for the crowds of tourists laughing and pointing.

These wombats were a little less harassed by tourists - well, until I came along.

These shots are from the Cradle Mountain area of Tasmania where these chunky marsupials are pretty common.  If you take a close look at these shots you can notice the amount of water on their fur - it was that kind of weather.

The second wombat here seems to be a red-head (red-body?) and shows that not all wombats are a bearish grey!  This one was also either drinking water from a hole it had dug on the side of the road, or it was mining out some tasty roots - whatever it was doing it was making a lot of slurping noises!

These animals can weigh as much as 35kg and grow to over a 1.1m in length.  They are also remarkably solid.

I'm not sure if its a 'trick of the light' but this second wombat does seem to have a cloudy eye, and I wonder if it is an old individual.

You can find more animals from around the world at Saturday Critters (although you will to wait until it's Saturday!)  SM