- This shot good, camera steady? Okay, today we are working at
the Australian Reptile Park, and we're actually gonna get up close with one of its most famous
marsupials, Grace the wombat. Mark, is Grace ready for her big debut? - [Mark] She is ready, look who I have. - Oh buddy. - Say hi, Grace. (laughs) - That is about as adorable,
and pudgy, as it gets for a marsupial here in Australia. Such a cool animal. - Now when we work with mammals, Coyote, what's the first thing we
have to do before any scene? - It's all about the
animal getting comfortable. Right now, we're preparing
to film a big wombat scene for a new Animal Planet series, and before we get Grace in
front of the main cameras, we figured well, let's get
her warmed up in front of VR. Can I hold you for a second? - Here you go. - Let's see, come see Coyote. - She's in a good mood today. - She's always in a good mood
because she loves to snuggle. You are about the cuddliest, cutest thing I think we have ever seen. Oh, you like your ears
scratched like that, huh? - Watch, she's going to sleep. - Now this creature looks
like it's a mix between a groundhog, a badger, maybe
a koala, maybe, I don't know, just a bump on a log. (laughs) But believe it or not, this
is a marsupial, and Mark, what do we know about marsupials? - Marsupials have pouches. - That's right, well, if it's
a female, they have a pouch, and Grace, because she's a little lady, definitely has a pouch, but
she's only two years old, so she's not ready to have any joeys yet, but one day when she's big
enough, and believe it or not, they can grow to three times this size, she will be out there making
little baby wombats, won't you? - Want to come back to me? - Yeah, you're like come over here, and let me snuggle for a second. - All right, gotcha. Now I noticed that Grace
has an extremely hard back. - Yes. - What's going on over there? - So the rump of the
wombat is very unique, as compared to any
other marsupial species. It's actually a big square of cartilage, and this is used as a
defense toward any predators that may chase them, so if they dive down in their
burrow, they love to dig, hide in those burrows, and if something chases them and tries to grab on to the backside, that cartilage cannot be
penetrated by teeth or claws. Basically it's a built-in shield. - That's pretty cool, and you know what else
is pretty cool I noticed, is that Grace has some crazy claws. Look at those things. - Get those right up close for
the camera, check that out. - Yeah, check that out. - Those claws, well it looks
like the foot of a badger. Just like badgers, they're
excellent at digging, and those claws are not used
for catching and killing food because they're herbivores. They're simply used for digging burrows. - What?
- I can see that at this point, Grace is ready to do some foraging and some digging on camera. You ready for your big
debut on Animal Planet? - Yeah, I heard Grace likes to run laps. - Okay, well let's do this. Let's give an outro, let's set
her down and run off camera, and I think she'll follow us. - Sounds like a plan. - I'm Coyote Peterson. - I'm Mark Vins. - Be brave. - Stay wild. - We'll see you on the next adventure. - All right, here we go Grace. - Let's go Grace. - Let's go.
