Wombats
Wombats live in Australia.
They may live in a forest or a grassland.
This wombat lives in a dry grassland.
A grassland is mainly grass with just a few trees.
Wombats look slow, but they have strong legs. Their legs are so powerful that they can run up to 25 miles per hour!
A wombat has claws so it is good at digging.
A wombat has claws.
A wombat digs a tunnel underground for its home. It is called a burrow.
In the daytime the wombat sleeps in its burrow. At night it comes out to look for food.
Wombats like to eat grass, roots and bark.
Wombats can live for years without drinking any water because they get water from inside the food they eat.
A wombat has whiskers.
Wombats are marsupials. A marsupial is a special mammal because it has a pouch.
The pouch is a flap of skin that forms a pocket. It is the home for their baby. A baby marsupial is called a joey.
joeys
Joeys are so tiny when they are born that they must crawl into the pouch for safety. In the pouch the joey drinks its mum's milk until it gets big enough to come out.
Wombats lived thousands of years ago in the Ice Age! It was much bigger then. It was called the giant wombat as it was the size of a rhino.
a giant wombat and its joey
By Eleanor (Nellie) Pease, ARC CoE CABAH - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.