FarmI wrote:
"Doug Freyburger" wrote:
Ruben wrote:

What is a wombat?

A marsupial that is not a possum, so that limits his continent to
Australia and it's islands.

As opposed to the multiple varieties of Australian possums which aren't the
same thing at all as US possums.

Exactly. Possums of various sorts are on multiple continents. Other
marsupials generally not.

Was the wombat eating stuff in your garden or did you get to it in time
and relocate it? Being herbivores I would think you don't want any in
your garden. I figure they are not as voracious as rabbits but they
just might taste somewhat like rabiit. No clue if they are rare enough
to be protected.

Doug Freyburger wrote:
FarmI wrote:
"Doug Freyburger" wrote:
Ruben wrote:

What is a wombat?

A marsupial that is not a possum, so that limits his continent to
Australia and it's islands.

As opposed to the multiple varieties of Australian possums which
aren't the same thing at all as US possums.

Exactly. Possums of various sorts are on multiple continents. Other
marsupials generally not.


One can try to distinguish some types by calling them opossums.

Was the wombat eating stuff in your garden or did you get to it in
time and relocate it? Being herbivores I would think you don't want
any in your garden.

Quite so. Other than what they may eat you could be inflicted with one
wanting to dig a home. Imagine a 5 year old boy at the controls of a
bulldozer.....

I figure they are not as voracious as rabbits
but they just might taste somewhat like rabiit. No clue if they are
rare enough to be protected.

They are much bigger than rabbits but don't occur in such large numbers.
All native fauna is protected by law regrdless of rarity.

D

"Doug Freyburger" wrote in message
...
FarmI wrote:
"Doug Freyburger" wrote:
Ruben wrote:

What is a wombat?

A marsupial that is not a possum, so that limits his continent to
Australia and it's islands.

As opposed to the multiple varieties of Australian possums which aren't
the
same thing at all as US possums.

Exactly. Possums of various sorts are on multiple continents. Other
marsupials generally not.

Was the wombat eating stuff in your garden or did you get to it in time
and relocate it? Being herbivores I would think you don't want any in
your garden. I figure they are not as voracious as rabbits but they
just might taste somewhat like rabiit. No clue if they are rare enough
to be protected.

They are built like brick outhouses and would weigh as much as a big dog.
I've seen a house's foundations undermined by one or more of them because
they dig huge burrows.

The wombat in our garden was just standing near a small personal access gate
which leads out of our garden onto our drive which then leads down between
the paddocks to the main road. My husband has a big shed down a track off
the driveway where he keeps some old cars and he was going out that way to
put something back in his shed. He saw the wombat and came back inside to
get me so I could see it.

When he told me it was there, I doubted if it'd still be there when we got
there but it was. It was facing us, but had started to dig under the gate
to get out. My husband said that the digging hadn't started when he came to
get me so it'd done a fair hole in the short time it took us to get there.
It just stood there while I patted it on the head which amazed both of us.
It even looked like it was mildly enjoying it as it lowered it's head and
slightly closed it eyes and looked even more docile and dozy than they
normally do.

After doing that for a time, we decided we should try to get him out the
gate. I opened it but as soon as I got behind it, it didn't like that and
moved off. I was going to try to grab it round it's middle from the back
and lift it up and move it that way. We tried a couple of times and then it
got under some bushes so we left the gate open and left it to itself. I'm
fairly sure it would have been eating the grass on what we call our 'lawn'
but there is nothing to stop it going anywhere in the garden except for the
orchard which is also the chook run.

I'm sure they are protected but even so, I have a friend in a wildlife group
who would be able to tell me how to 'relocate' or move it on if it becomes a
real bother. When it comes round to spring and some growth in my vegetable
patch would be the time I'd start to focus on any resident wombat if needs
must.