Aussie animals: I love wombats

Patrick the Wombat, who lives in Ballarat Wildlife Park in Victoria, is the oldest wombat in captivity. He just celebrated his 31st birthday in August and I had the chance to visit this cute "Bucky toothed" friend last year when he turned 30. I learned from the park ranger that Patrick was taken to them after his mother was killed by a car. Patrick was named by CNN as the No. 3 city mascot in world and has his own Facebook page with over 50,000 likes. He even had a song written about him. I love looking at new photos of him because they always cheer me up. 

Wombats usually sleep during the day but I was lucky to see Patrick and two others awake so I happily snapped numerous photos of them. They are very good at burrowing and have sharp claws and strong backbones that feel like a shield. Another park ranger told me that if a predator is chasing them, they will run to their burrow and use their back to push the predator up against the top of the tunnel with great force to kill the attacker. Wombats have short legs but they can run very fast over short distances. In fact some are faster than Usain Bolt! Sadly, I have seen many dead wombats on the side of the road (although more often it is kangaroos). 

Photos taken with Canon 7D with Canon 50 mm f1.8 lens.