Not every parent can say their toddler is best friends with a 25-kilogram wombat, and Hamilton's Nicholas Petropoulos feels pretty chuffed about it.
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When the wildlife conservationist adopted Boo the wombat as a joey, he never imagined his daughter Isabella would take such a shining to the muscular marsupial.
The relationship between Isabella and Boo has taken the internet by storm, and helped Mr Petropoulos spread the world about conservation through his platform Wicked Wildlife.
"Boo is a two-year-old forest wombat, she came to us when she was orphaned and weighed only a few hundred grams, the size of a large orange, and she needed a permanent home," Mr Petropoulos said.
"We knew we were going to be getting Boo before Isabella was born. She was living with another wildlife carer while she was still a pink joey, but because Isabella was on the way we decided to put Boo off until we got Isabella home.
"We got Boo when Isabella was about three-months-old, so the two of them have grown up together indoors.
"It wasn't until Boo moved outdoors, she was 15-16 kilos, so the two of them for the better part of the last year and a half have wreaked havoc in my house.
"Tipping things over and spreading toys wherever they like. They are best friends."
When she's not living a peaceful life on the farm, Boo accompanies Mr Petropolous on his wildlife shows.
"We run a business called Wicked Wildlife which essentially is a mobile zoo, and Boo visits schools and birthday parties and kindergartens and teaches people about Australian biodiversity," he said.
"The last thing we want to do is say that wombats make good pets, you can't keep a wombat as a pet. Boo isn't an average wombat, she has been raised specifically for this and selected out of a few hundred joeys that come through care every year specifically for this job.
"Boo is very used to human interaction, but it doesn't mean you can find any wombat on the side of the road. Any wombat that's orphaned needs to go through the proper authorities to a wildlife carer to be released into permanent housing or a licensed facility like ours or a zoo."
Mr Petropolous moved to their farm in Yulecart, just out of Hamilton, in 2013.
They have more than 1500 acres and keep over 200 species on the property, including lizards, snakes, birds and a dingo.
"In Hamilton they are extinct, we don't have wombats in Hamilton anymore. They disappeared after the First World War when returning soldiers got given their own blocks," he said.
"There's a population left out in Nelson, and that's all that's left in south-west Victoria pretty much.
"There was one seen in Coleraine 15 years ago, and that was just one, so nobody knows if there's a few that have held on or if somebody has raised and released it.
"The reason they're so important is their burrows are used by so many other different animals. Burrowing animals are a lot more important than people realise."
Mr Petropolous is passionate about educating people about native wildlife.
"Most kids have learnt more about lions and tigers and pandas than they have about Australian wildlife," he said.
"It's due to a number of things: we don't have big iconic mega fauna that makes an exciting documentary and 80 per cent of our mammals are nocturnal.
"That's what our business is all about, trying to teach people that conservation needs to start at home.
"It's all good to stamp and shout about Brazil or Japan and their use of natural resources but we have to lead by example and fix our own backyard first.
"We've got the coolest animals on earth."
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