Wombat Watch: Week 4
It was my first site of little Wombalano and I was smitten. She was followed by her big sister Wyerigeru who watched me closely and was never quite convinced that I was a friend. At the sound of the camera shutter she would quickly scurry back into the mysterious burrow…
One by one they emerged from their burrow. I’d like to think they came out to see me, but the truth is they were far more interested in the rustling of the food bucket and Annie gently calling “wombie, wombie”.
It was my first site of little Wombalano and I was smitten. She was followed by her big sister Wyerigeru who watched me closely and was never quite convinced that I was a friend. At the sound of the camera shutter she would quickly scurry back into the mysterious burrow. Annie is not quite sure where the burrow leads, but is convinced that one morning she will come out to pull out some weeds in her expansive vegetable garden and will find the ground crumbling underneath her. But the wombats are happy, so Annie is happy!
Wombalano seemed quite comfortable with us being around. She happily tucked into the grass and sweet potato that Annie laid in front of her. A huge mound of grass, many times the size of the wombats, that we were assured would be consumed before the night was out.
It takes a lot of time and money to fend for a wombat. The grasses around Annie’s house are now scarce, so she is growing native grasses to prop up the wombats’ nightly feed. The weekly delivery of grass from the school kids at Darraweit Guim Primary school are an important addition to the wombat’s diet.
With five joeys, three wombats, a host of recovered birds that just won’t leave, Macca the cockatoo and the nightly visits from the local possum population, Annie certainly has her hands full. But the smile on her face when she is feeding the joeys tells me there isn’t anything else in the world she would rather be doing.
