Suzie the Wombat - 1999

Suzie the Wombat - 1999
24-07-2008

03-01-2009

The wombat is pretending to be cute while hiding its bloodthirsty intentions...just like the white rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

10-05-2012

You hit the nail on the head there. she used to love giving a good bite.

10-05-2012

Most handraised wombats are like that. At around 11 months of age they decide there life's ambition is to amputate every human foot they see at the ankle. When they're at the size of suzie above, they wait until anything fleshy is within biting range.

Compared to the body size, wonbats have the largest brain of almost any mammal. but they look stupid and naive, and they know it. They pretend to be stupid and naive so they can get away with anything.

23-11-2012

I wonder how many people the giant wombat diprotodont critters took out before the humans got the upper-hand and wiped them out?

23-11-2012

As Diprotodon was considered to be vegetarian, they would have only taken out humans in the same way a cow or rhino might - by trampling them.

And though Diprotodon was related to the wombats and was wombat-like, it wasn't technically a wombat and didn't dig a burrow. The giant Phascolonus gigas was the largest wombat, and was the largest creature to ever dig burrows.

If I lived back in those days I'd be more worried about the carnivorous kangaroo Propleopus ocillans and the aptly named Demon Duck of Doom Bullockornis planei.

23-11-2012

an interesting thing about common wombats is that their droppings are almost cube-shaped. You can just make that out in this photo. The theory I have heard is that it is because they deposit them upon logs as territorial markings, and the shape prevents them rolling off.

23-11-2012

if you were living back when Bullockornis roamed the Earth you'd have been pretty lonely because you'd have been the only human on the planet!

However Genyornis newtoni was still kicking around when the first humans arrived in Australia, and that was a jolly big bird too.

23-11-2012

I think if I was living a couple of hundred years ago I'd still be pretty lonely! I'm not much for socialising.

23-11-2012

No love - or indeed fear - for the marsupial lion Thylacoleo carnifex?

23-11-2012

Nope. Big teeth, really fascinating dentition, but not that scary.

24-11-2012

Rather you than me I assume you have been taken in by the claims by some researchers that they were actually frugivorous, but this has now been refuted.

24-11-2012

Frugivorous? With those carnassials? No way!!!

Thylacoleo was a large carnivore, but not as large as a lion, more a small leopard - only a metre and a half long in total and less than a metre in height. They most likely would not attack an adult human under normal circumstances. I believe I could probably stare one down, or fend it off with a big stick.

Unless, of course, it was a pack animal.



Hix

24-11-2012

As I noted, there have been revisionists intent on establishing it as such, amazing though this may seem.


However, it was very powerful for its size, with a 100kg individual possessing a pound-for-pound bite force equalling that of a big cat more than twice its size and weight. And it was a lot heavier set than a placental cat.

Basically, rather than a small marsupial leopard it would be more accurate to think of it as a bloody big wombat with a very bad attitude problem

24-11-2012

Come on! How can you say that? For all you know they might have liked rubbing up against people's legs!



Hix