Wombling Wombats

30/01/2015 - 30/01/2015 10 °C

In the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, wild life is abundant.
The park’s two wallaby species – Bennetts and pandemelons – can be seen grazing in grassy areas.
This is a Bennetts Wallaby

Bushed-tailed possums are nocturnal and abundant around accommodation areas. Two of the worlds three surviving monotremes – the platypus and the echidna – are often seen in the area. Echidnas amble beside the road or the walking tracks, while platypus can be spotted by quiet observers in the many lakes and rivers.
Despite efforts, we weren't fortunate enough to see a Platypus, but we did spot a few Echidna's

The world’s largest carnivorous marsupials – the endangered Tasmanian Devil, the spotted-tailed quoll and the eastern quoll – are also found here.
We didn't spot either of these, but were aware there were baby Devil's living under the veranda of the lodge - a good sign as numbers have seriously declined since they have suffered from facial tumours.
No visit to Cradle Mountain will go by without being acquainted with the black currawongs. They are excellent scavengers and can open zips on backpacks to search for food.

Around 6pm, along the Overland Track at Ronny Creek, there's a high chance of spotting wombats.
Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia and are approximately 1 metre (40 in) in length, with short, stubby tails.

They are described as littls bull-dozers and nothing stops them! As we found out when we visited Bonorong Wildlife Park, they have hard body armour on their lower back, which they use in defence if threatened and can crush a dogs skull by slamming upwards in the entrance to their burrows as the predator tries to get past. You can make out the shape on this water loving wombat below.

We were lucky enough to spot at least 10 different wombats whilst on this particular walkway, each one has their own territory, so it was interesting when they came to cross paths. One in fact ran right under my feet, below the walkway, which they use as a quick route around the area, rather than wading through the grass.