The wombat is the Australian mammal with a rear-opening pouch and a powerful digging body. A pouch that opens toward the rear helps prevent soil from filling it while the mother excavates burrows.
Wombats are compact herbivores with short legs, strong claws, and muscular shoulders. They create underground burrows that provide shelter from predators and temperature extremes. Their rear-facing pouch is a specialised adaptation for raising young while continuing to dig and forage.
The young wombat, called a joey, develops in the pouch before later emerging and accompanying its mother. Wombats remain dependent for some time after leaving the pouch, returning to it when threatened or resting during early development.
This feature is shared in different forms by several burrowing marsupials, so it is not unique to wombats. However, the wombat combines it with an especially robust digging lifestyle. Wombats are also unusual among mammals for producing cube-shaped faeces used in territorial marking.