Baby wombats

Wombats are large, ungainly animals which do little but dig burrows and eat grass. But aren't these baby wombats gorgeous? We saw them at Healesville (Wildlife) Sanctuary last weekend.

Actually, probably the most interesting thing about a wombat is its rather unusual pouch. A wombat, like a kangaroo, is a marsupial. Like kangaroos, wombats keep their babies in a pouch. But the wombat pouch faces backward. If a wombat was a kangaroo, standing on its hind legs, its baby would drop out of its pouch. Being wombats, however, they don't stand up on their hind legs. They burrow. So the baby in the pouch -- which faces backwards -- doesn't get a faceful of mud when Mother Wombat digs into the ground.

Isn't Nature wonderful?