WOMBAT

either of the two species of Australian mammals constituting the family Phascolomyidae, or Vombatidae, of the superorder Marsupialia. They are virtually tailless animals, 70 to 120 cm (28 to 47 inches) long and of heavy, woodchucklike build. Unlike other marsupials they have continuously growing, rootless teeth; the incisors are rodentlike. The eyes are small, and the ears are rather short. The pouch opens rearward. Wombats bear one young at a time, which develop in the pouch five months or longer. Wombats are chiefly nocturnal and strictly herbivorous, eating grasses and the inner bark of tree and shrub roots. They make a grassy nest at the end of a large underground burrow, which may be 30 m (100 feet) long. Wombats are considered pests because they dig in cultivated fields and pastures and because their burrows harbour rabbits. The common wombat (Phascolomis, or Vombatus, ursinus) has coarse dark hair and small ears. It occurs in southeastern Australia and Tasmania; the mainland population is sometimes called V. hirsutus. The rare Queensland hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus barnardi) has fine grizzled fur and longer ears; it is protected by law, and most of the population lives within a national park.