Cute Wombats

Wombats are cute.

{[red Wombats weren’t always this cute… ]}

{[purple Diprotodon optatum ]}fawn, an early relative of the wombat, which lived in Australia during the Ice-Age, is estimated to have weighed 2,786 kilograms. That’s some 70 times larger than the common wombat. It interesting to consider this with respect to the common misconception of the ‘native’ inhabitants of countries like Australia and North America. In both continents there was a significant decline in the populations of large marsupials and mammals respectively; with the arrival of the Indigenous Australians and the Native Americans.

{[orange “Scientists have long squabbled as to the reason for the pouched giant’s demise. Human hunter-gatherers and their burning practices, along with the diseases and pest species that accompanied them, have been implicated in many large-animal declines. Another possible explanation is the drier climate ushered in at the end of the last Ice Age.” ]} {[orange Wikkipedia 08/08/06 ]}

{[olive When angered, a wombat may hiss and rush. They will often try to chase intruders away. Able to run up to 40 km/h and sometime weighing over 40 kilograms. The Wombat is not an animal which should be threatened. Despite the fact that it is a herbivore, it has powerful jaws capable of inflicting serious flesh wounds and has been known to crush small bones. When coupled with the fact that the ]} {[purple Diprotodon optatum ]}[[fawn was nearly 70 times as large and the presupposition that Wombats are cute can be a dangerous one. Despite the fact that it is illegal to keep wombats as pets, their destructive habits and attitudinal disposition, makes them a real hassle in captivity.

Two things to note relating to {[purple Diprotodon optatum ]} - The Native Australians and North Americans were perhaps less in balance with nature, when they first arrived, than they are often given credit for. - Perhaps the Wombat is not as cute and defenceless as is commonly thought. ]]

{[red The terror of the Australian Outback; The Wombat ]}

{[blue -Ptolemy ]}

(Drop Bears > Wombats.)