22nd October: Wombat Day

It's Wombat Day. There are three species of wombat - the common wombat, the Northern hairy-nosed wombat or yaminon, and the Southern hairy-nosed wombat. They belong to the family Vombatidae and are only found in Australia. Here are ten more facts about them:

1. The name 'wombat' comes from the nearly extinct Darug language spoken by the aboriginal Darug people, who originally inhabited the Sydney area.
2. During the ice age, there were giant wombats, the size of a Rhinoceros.
3. There are a number of places in Australia named after the wombat, including the Wombat State Forest, Wombat Hill in Daylesford and the town of Wombat, New South Wales. Badger Creek, Victoria, and Badger Corner, Tasmania, were also named after the wombat, because early European settlers mistook them for Badgers.
4. Wombats are built for digging and can shift three feet of dirt in a day. They have long claws and also, unusually for marsupials, a pouch that faces backwards, so their babies don't get covered in dirt while they are digging.
5. They often appear to be quite slow animals with a waddling gait. Their metabolism is pretty slow - it can take them up to two weeks to digest a meal (an adaptation for living in hot, dry conditions). That said, they can be fast when they want to be. When threatened, they can run at 25mph for about 90 seconds. That's almost as fast as Usain Bolt, whose top speed is just under 28mph.
6. They'll also defend their territory vigorously. They can run at a person and bowl them over and they have a nasty bite. Naturalist Harry Frauca, once received a bite 2 cm (0.8in) deep into the flesh of his leg—through a rubber boot, trousers and thick socks.
7. Their territorial nature is also thought to be the reason that their poo is square. Wombats have special bones in their rear ends that squeeze their poo into cubes. This means it doesn't roll away; it stays where they leave it and marks their territory.
8. They have tough bottoms altogether. Their bums are mostly cartilage and their tails are short and stubby. This means any predator (such as a Dingo or Tasmanian Devil) that tries to follow a wombat into its burrow risks breaking its teeth - or worse. The wombat can shove the predator's head upwards using its powerful legs and crush the pursuer's skull against the roof of the tunnel. Or it can kick like a Donkey and drive the predator away.
9. A group of wombats is known as a wisdom.
10. Aboriginal legends don't portray the wombat as very important and while they appear in some ancient paintings, they weren't painted that often. The most famous fictional wombat is probably "Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat" the unofficial mascot of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

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Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

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