A rare video of wombats having sex sideways offers a glimpse into the bizarre realm of animal reproduction

By Julie Old, Associate Professor, Biology, Zoology, Animal Science, Western Sydney University
Hayley Stannard, Senior lecturer, Charles Sturt University

If you look at where wombats deposit their poo, you realise they must be able to perform some surprising acrobatics. It has always amazed me to see wombat scats on top of grass tussocks or logs, because I’ve always wondered how the stocky creatures must have manoeuvred themselves to put it there.

It turns out these sturdy marsupials also engage in a different kind of acrobatics: we recently received a video from Lyndell Giuliano and Andy Carnahan at Tomboye, New South Wales, who had filmed two wombats in the wild “doing the wild thing”!

While we know it happens, because…

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