Wombat Watching

**David** Tue May 31, 2011 9:19 am

We would like to develop a “Wombat Watch” facility. Wombat Watch would be based on the English Badger Watch program. The English Badger Watch model (www.badgerwatch.com) (www. Devonbadgerwatch .co.uk) was developed for observing badgers in the wild and educating the public in the native wildlife.

I have been a wombat carer for about ten years specialising in wombats. In these capacities I have often been asked about wombats. We believe that educating people about wombats would be far more effective particularly where children are involved if the people concerned could observe wombats in the wild. This has been proven regularly with the success of wombats included in TV shows. The popularity of wombat books and toys also speaks of the popularity of wombats yet most Australians have never seen a live wombat. The success of wombat conservation would be greatly enhanced by better public awareness and familiarity with wombats.

We would like to develop a facility to allow the public to observe wombats in the wild. We believe that allowing the public to see wombats in the wild would raise their awareness of wombats. A greater awareness of wombats and their behaviour can only benefit their conservation. We would be very interested to know what others would expect from such a facility or what it is about wombats that they would most like to see.