Eight-month-old Wilbur the wombat is living proof of how important it is to check the pouch of any marsupial that’s been hit by a car. A thoughtful passer-by thought she saw flutterings in the wombat mother’s pouch. She looked inside, and there was a tiny joey.

He was brought to the Australian Reptile Park where he was put on round-the-clock feeds under the care of keeper Seleena de Gelder who named him Wilbur.

During the daytime, he has started to meet visitors during Wombat Encounters and seems to love anyone who gives him pats and cuddles.

His feeding times coincide with another Reptile Park joey, Albert, and they have become firm friends. What they don’t seem to realise though, as they feast on their bottles side by side, is that Albert is a tree-hugging koala, while Wilbur is very much a ground-hugging wombat! It’s confusing having a dinner mate who’s also a grey furry marsupial … but different.

Like many a child, cheeky Wilbur puts off the bedtime hour at Seleena’s house at night by doing energetic zoomies around the furniture and between Seleena’s feet, click-clacking a racket on the floorboards with his long nails. We suspect it’s inevitable – wombats are mainly nocturnal and Wilbur most likely thinks he’s in training for the night-time foraging he’ll be doing once he’s independent enough to be released back into the wild.

You can see Wilbur and Albert at the Australian Reptile Park on the Central Coast. reptilepark.com.au