Tourists spot ‘unusual’ wombat behavior in Australia: video

A bear-like creature surprised tourists in Australia by walking onto the beach and wading into the water during the day, a video has revealed. The animal’s ‘unusual’ behavior puzzled experts.

During their visit to Tasmania, Chaz and Bee Taylor went for a hike and stopped at a remote beach, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The tourists were accompanied by an “unusual” visitor: a wombat, the Wombat Protection Society of Australia said in an April 19 Facebook post. A video shows the round animal entering the water, apparently drinking something and walking away.

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Wombats are relatively large, furry marsupials that look “round”, “cuddly” and “bear-like”, according to Tasmania’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment. These burrowing animals are native to Australia and average about one meter in length and weigh more than 40 kilos.

The recent sighting of a wombat wading into the water during the day and eating or drinking was “unusual”, the association said.

Wombats are mainly nocturnal and prefer wooded areas where the ground is better suited for burrowing, environmental officials said.

“We’ve seen pictures of wombat footprints on the sand of the beaches, and they may extend all the way to the water’s edge, but we’ve never seen that kind of behavior,” said Jennifer Mattingley, an association official. , the Australian Broadcasting Corporation told us.

The wombat in the video did not appear to be sick, Mattingley told the outlet.

“The wombat may find some additional nutrients in the seagrasses/plants that may be missing from its diet,” the association wrote on Facebook.

“There is a lot of mystery about wombats and their lifestyle,” the organization said.

Chaz and Bee Taylor told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the wombat sighting “delighted” them. “We really didn’t know what a wombat looked like… We’re from Montana and we have a lot of bears, so to us this looked like a small, friendly bear.”

The Wombat Protection Society of Australia said it is “investigating” the wombat’s strange behavior.

Tasmania is an island off the southeastern coast of Australia.