Consider the Wombat | Hacker News Reader

Consider the Wombat

lrb.co.uk

48 pointshoffmannesque13 comments

It's good to hear numbers of Northern Hairy Nose wombats are picking up. There was a dingo attack (maybe a single dingo) that wiped out 10% of the entire population in 2002.

This site has a lote of information about the Northern Hairy Nose wombat. https://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/wildlife/threatened-species/endan...

Having just found the Digger comic, it's amusing to see this come up. Sad to hear they're so endangered.

http://diggercomic.com/blog/2007/02/01/wombat1-gnorf/

They're not -- the common wombat is, true to its name, still very common, and it's only the northern hairy-nosed wombat that's endangered.

They are, however, all now protected from hunting, so wombat hams no longer feature on Australian menus.

My niece has raised a few (she's a zookeeper), and they're amazing little animals that become huge amazing animals. They're friendly, playful and love company. There's one that roams on my parent's 20acre farm (but it's wild, so we leave it alone).

I thought this little video might sidetrack everyone from their regular cat watching: https://youtu.be/oCZ9Zyi6XaA

hm, the article says the opposite about the common wombat.

> Now, despite its name, the common wombat is no longer common. Overgrazing and the destruction of their natural habitat has caused a sharp drop in their numbers; all species of wombat are now protected, and the northern hairy-nosed wombat is critically endangered.

Yes, that's what the article says, but the IUCN disagrees: http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/40556/0

Thank you, Mr. Belson. But you're still fired.

Consider the Elephant

Can’t believe this article missed the most delightful factoid regarding wombats’ cubic poo.

ODE TO THE WOMBAT — Anon.

As you pound along the track

Eyes wide open and ears pinned back

You may have noticed those queer square turds

And thought if not expressed in words

The pain of such defecation

Baffles the imagination

But it ain’t done to entertain us

The wombat has an oblong anus

So if at night you hear pained cries

Outside your tent, feel no surprise

With eyes shut tight, teeth clenched with pain

A wombat’s gone and crapped again!

(The ‘cubic poo’ is such a feature of the Overland Track in Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain National Park it has inspired the above poem... I originally saw it posted on the walls of a drop toilet at a campsite on the track)

>> He bought a toucan, which he trained to ride a llama.

OK.

I always think back to Ze Frank’s “True Facts”: https://youtu.be/gNqQL-1gZF8

The what?

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