Happy international wombat day!

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) - west of Blanchetown, SA, September 2019

It's October 22nd, 🐨 International Wombat Day! The traditions surrounding today's event have expanded from simply celebrating these cute little creatures to eating lots of chocolate and wine gums (known in some parts of the world as gummy bears or Swedish fish).

Wombats are furry, stocky, short-legged, herbivorous marsupials, native to open grasslands and eucalyptus forests in Australia and Tasmania. They like to keep to themselves, living solitary lives in underground burrows during the day and coming out at night to forage on grasses, roots, and bark.

Space for wombats is at a premium as farm and ranch lands increasingly encroach upon their natural habitats. The damage to crop fields and pastures caused by wombats' burrowing can be a big nuisance. They've been hunted as vermin for this reason, as well as for their fur and simply for sport. They're easy targets because, like their cousins, the koala, they’re very cumbersome and move very slowly. But they're amazingly cute, too, so please stop hunting them. ☮️ Peace… Jamiese of Pixoplanet

Happy #WombatDay!

Here's the wombat from Gerard Krefft's The Mammals of Australia, 1871. All the book plates were done by Australian sisters Harriet & Helena Scott - this one is credited to Harriet.

🆔: Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)

See all the plates here:

The Australian Museum has lots of info on the Scott sisters' prolific natural history illustration careers here:

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats (Lasiorhinus latifrons) are marsupials related to koalas. Their pouches face backwards so that they don’t get dirt in them while they dig. @sandiegozoo #sandiegozoo #wombats #wombatsofinstagram #wombatday https://www.instagram.com/p/CVVTpUvAcNg/?utm_medium=tumblr

#DidYouKnow Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriele Rossetti had two pet wombats? Here are his wombat drawings for #WombatDay http://pic.twitter.com/o6SS2D1yMG

— British Museum (@britishmuseum) October 22, 2017