Another Monday rolls around and the snooze button gets slammed one too many times after the alarm blares repeatedly.
You don’t feel like getting out of bed and starting the week, but at least there is comfort in knowing you aren’t the only one. Animals, just like humans, enjoy their sleep. And one animal at the Toronto Zoo is especially notorious for struggling to wake up.
Ryan Hegarty, the zoo’s wildlife care keeper for the Australasia pavilion, amur tigers, and red pandas, snapped a photo of a southern hairy-nosed wombat named Matilba one Monday morning that is oh-so-relatable.
Matilba walked over to her breakfast platter but immediately fell on her back, legs straight up in the air, and went back to sleep. Talk about a dream.
The zoo then shared the photo on X, formerly known as Twitter, on November 20. The tweet reads: “Matilba is a Monday mood.”
“Me too, Matilba, meeeee toooooooo,” commented a user. Another person wrote: “Omgsh sooo cute!!”
Hegarty told Newsweek that everyone at the zoo knows Matilba loves her sleep. One would think food would be a motivator to get her up, but that doesn’t seem to do the trick. He still isn’t sure what will do the trick.
It is a “waiting game” with Matilba, he said. “If she wants to sleep, she is going to sleep.”
“We just work for Matilba. I don’t blame her.”
Matilba is one of two southern hairy-nosed wombats at the Toronto Zoo. The other one, Arthur, also likes to sleep—but nowhere near as much as Matilba.
“They do love their sleep, especially in the summer and when it is warm,” said Hegarty. “They don’t want to overheat.”
Luckily Arthur helps get Matilba up sometimes, since the zoo employees never physically touch the animals to move them.
These wombats are mostly active at dawn and dusk, which means zoogoers will likely see Matilba in her den, once again on her back, feet up, and snoozing the day away.
Toronto Zoo
Matilba and Arthur are both almost 12 years old. Arthur’s date of birth is unknown as he was rescued from the wild, but the zoo believes he was born in 2011, Hegarty said.
Matilba was born in Chicago at the Brookfield Zoo on February 18, 2012, and brought to Toronto in September of 2013.
The Brookfield Zoo became the first zoo outside of Australia to successfully breed this kind of wombat, a major accomplishment as the southern hairy-nosed wombats are listed as “near-threatened.”
Hegarty said there are currently only 12 southern hairy-nosed wombats within North America and the Toronto Zoo is lucky enough to have two of them.
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Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.