The wombat menace

[Sue U]

How did we miss this? Gob, surely this must have been front-page news in Oz??

Woman attacked by wombat thought she was going to die

Kerry Evans received more than 20 bites and lacerations, three requiring stitches, in what was the first reported wombat attack in Canberra


Attacks by wombats are rare but not unheard of. Photograph: Alamy

Calla Wahlquist
@callapilla

Monday 22 August 2016 04.58 EDT
Last modified on Monday 22 August 2016 07.15 EDT

An Australian woman who was reportedly attacked by a wombat while walking her dogs says she thought she was going to die at the paws of the aggressive marsupial.

Kerry Evans, from Canberra, told Fairfax Media she was walking her springer spaniels Murphy and Pirate down a suburban street last week when she encountered the wombat, which was grazing in a front garden.

Evans said the wombat charged her dogs who panicked and knocked her to the ground, within reach of the wombat’s claws.

“I was laying screaming for help, I couldn’t get away from it, every time I managed to get up it attacked me and bit me and knocked me to the ground,” she told the Canberra Times.

“I really thought I was going to lay there and die that night because I just couldn’t see how I was going to get away from it, it just wasn’t stopping its attack.”

She was rescued by a neighbour and a nearby driver, who took control of her dogs and allowed her to scramble away.

Evans received more than 20 bites and lacerations from the wombat’s attack, three of which required stitches.

A spokeswoman from the Australian Capital Territory’s parks and conservation service said it was the first reported wombat attack in the Australian capital.

“The ACT government does not regularly warn the community about wombats as this was a rare occurrence,” she said.

Wombat attacks on humans are rare but not unheard of. In 2010 a 60-year-old man spent the night in hospital after being “mauled” by a wombat he encountered while attending to a call of nature outside his caravan.

According to a report from the time, the man, Bruce Kringle, said he was unable to escape the animal and eventually lay on it until his neighbour came to his aid. The neighbour then killed the wombat with a blow to the back of the head with an axe.

Authorities suggested the wombat may have mange, a skin condition that causes blindness and can make wombats more scared and defensive, but one of Kringle’s other neighbours dismissed that claim, saying: “It looked quite healthy apart from the fact it was dead.”

James Woodford, a contributing writer to Guardian Australia who wrote a book titled The Secret Life of Wombats, said the animals “knock you over like a skittle.”

“They’re really only good around people while they’re babies,” Woodford said. “The image of the cute and cuddly wombat is a load of hogwash.”

Adult wombats are known to be aggressive, particularly if they feel threatened. A favourite technique, according to the Australian Museum, is to flee to a nearby burrow and then use their sizeable rump to crush the pursuing predator’s head against the dirt roof.

Their bites are usually not severe but can cause a serious infection if untreated.

Martin Lind, from the ACT’s wildlife service, said the animals were deceptively fast “little bulldozers” and not as cute and cuddly as commonly portrayed.

“As babies, they’re clingy, they’re adorable, they’re with mum 24 hours a day, they’re in a soft, snuggly sleeping bag all the time listening to a heart beat,” Lind told The Canberra Times.

“When they start to mature and hit puberty, they just hate everybody and everything. They go from running between your legs and cute as a button to being absolute little – can I swear? – little shits. They nip you, they wreck, they bite. I won’t look after wombats because you kiss goodbye to your flooring and everything. They just destroy everything.”

Lind suggested wild wombats be given a wide berth.

Source: The Grauniad

[Scooter]

“When they start to mature and hit puberty, they just hate everybody and everything. They go from running between your legs and cute as a button to being absolute little – can I swear? – little shits.

So very much like human offspring, then?

[rubato]

A Killer on the Loose!


yrs,
rubato

[Bicycle Bill]

-"BB"-

[Lord Jim]

“When they start to mature and hit puberty, they just hate everybody and everything. They go from running between your legs and cute as a button to being absolute little – can I swear? – little shits.

So very much like human offspring, then?

I had just copied that, and was getting ready to post making the same point when I scrolled down and saw your response...

[BoSoxGal]

“When they start to mature and hit puberty, they just hate everybody and everything. They go from running between your legs and cute as a button to being absolute little – can I swear? – little shits.

So very much like human offspring, then?

[rubato]

-"BB"-

An 80s group in the north bay of Calif. Jackie Phelan et al.

Jacquie Phelan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Jacquie Phelan (born December 10, 1955 in San Francisco, California) is an American road and cyclocross racer, and was the NORBA champion three consecutive years—1983, 1984, and 1985.

Phelan is known through the US mountain bike community for having developed WOMBATS (Women's Mountain Bike & Tea Society) for women interested more in socializing and enjoying nature. Her nickname of "Alice B. Toeclips" is a homage to Alice B. Toklas.

Her bike Otto, was among the first aluminum frames raced, with drop bars off road, and her creative attire. Phelan is married to Wilderness Trail Bikes founder and component inventor Charlie Cunningham, the bicycle frame builder whose aluminum bike, "Otto," Phelan raced unbeaten for six years. This bike was the first modern lightweight mountain bike, and its heat-treated sloping top tube aluminum frame held up for over nine consecutive seasons. The roller cam brakes, two chainrings (44-34), and custom-fabricated eleven-tooth rear cog gave a boost in technical riding. The bike also drew criticism from traditional framebuilders, who believed durable frames had to be made of steel.

She is a charter inductee into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1988,.[1] In 2000 she was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame.[2] Along with a dozen others, Phelan founded NORBA in 1982, and was a charter member of IMBA. Phelan founded the Women's Mountain Bike & Tea Society (WOMBATS) in 1987 to encourage women's and girls' participation,[1] and in 1984 produced the sport's first off-road skills camps & clinics, known as "Fat Tire Finishing School". Her nickname of "Alice B. Toeclips" is a homage to Alice B. Toklas.

Phelan was the first US mountain bike racer to race abroad (Man v. Horse, Wales). In 2004 she placed 8th overall in the Transportugal, a 1300 km offroad adventure race, where she was the only woman. Phelan is still invited to participate in offroad races both stateside and abroad. In summer 2009 she took part in a two-month vodka commercial called the 42 Below ride, a 4,200-mile crossing of the USA by road bike.

Phelan appears in three documentary films: Full Cycle: A World Odyssey (1994), How to Cook Your Life (Doris Doerrie's film about Zen baker Edward Espe Brown, 2007), and Billy Savage's Klunkerz.[3]

You want kick-ass women? Come to California.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

First time I've seen that report

[ex-khobar Andy]

I do love this line:

“It looked quite healthy apart from the fact it was dead.”