From the ABC:
Wombat mauls camper
A man is recovering in hospital after he was mauled by a wombat at Flowerdale, north-east of Melbourne.
Paramedics say the 60-year-old was attacked by the animal as he stepped out of a caravan early this morning.
He was bitten on the arms and legs, and taken to the Northern Hospital in stable condition.
Jeff McClure from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) says it is highly unusual for a wombat to attack a person.
"Wombats that are in an advance stage of mange will become very agitated from the suffering and the irritation of the mange," he said.
He said if they are approached or feel threatened wombats will rush towards someone.
"But it's not known that they will push the attack to where they would physically attack someone.
It looks fairly small. How big would it be?
ReplyDeleteThey are about a metre long and weigh about 35kg. Being burrowing animals, they are very solid and strong. Normally they don't attack people- in fact they are mostly nocturnal and it's rare to come across them. I saw this on TV news the other night and they speculate that the severe bushfires might have affected the brain ofthis particular animal, making it far more aggressive than normal.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, I would have thought them smaller than that from the picture.
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