It’s winter school holidays down here in the real deep south. As a shakedown cruise for my new/used Toyota Hilux pick-up, I came up with the idea of taking my daughter camping in north-east Tasmania to photograph wombats. The very best place to photograph these animals is at Narawntapu National Park where they graze like miniature bison on the flat open areas that used to be potato fields.
Winter is the best time to photograph these shy marsupials, as they come out of their burrows in the daytime, to warm up in the thin winter sunshine. The weather was not at all kind to us, but as the old cliche goes: if you don’t like the weather in Tasmania, just wait five minutes. We managed to keep warm and cheerful and got enough good light to get what we were after.
A wombat peering shyly from its burrow © Rob Walls 2010
Along the way, I discovered a stock photo niche. Amongst the 19,000,000 pictures on Alamy, there is not a single picture of the curiously rhomboid wombat scat. “Scat”, a curious word? A euphemism? Probably. Not much better than putting “s**t”, but then telling it like it is and calling it “shit” is, to my mind, somewhat crude. Anyway, if any natural history photo editors out there are looking for a stock shots of wombat excrement, they should be able to find several at Alamy.com after next week.
As my friend and colleague Roel Loopers said, “as we all know, Rob, shit sells!” I hope so. Here for your information and edification is what wombat crap looks like:
Wombat scat
Tasmanian Times
This photographer's life 
That scat looks hard like rocks, Rob. Is it?
I like wombats, they look so endearing.
Roel
Roel, I didn’t investigate that closely, the turds seem to be firm when fresh, but not especially hard. A bit like rabbit droppings. Was tempted to rake up a bag as manure for the garden…but of all the things prohibited in national parks, I’m sure that this would be an absolute no-no.
Love Wombats,years ago held a young one in my arms
like a baby on set of a TV show.
Irene
They are cute, Irene, but turn out to be impressively solid when you hold them. More tank-like than cuddly. Koalas, the same.
Looks like, smells like, tastes like….must be ;P
Angie and I rescued one once (a wombat, not the scat)…she was orphaned, and I pulled the house brick from the mothers pouch and took it to a mate who looks after such unfortunates.
She is well grown now (and back in the wild), but early in the piece, she was like a little dog…running and playing games….they are amazing creatures….awesome!!
My daughter would love to have one as a pet. There used to be one that would wander amongst the feet of the pool players in that big log cabin pub at Derwent Bridge.