Photo by DOUG GIMESY
wombat
The only animal in the world to pull square.
The Tasmanian wombats, which are found in southeastern Australia, have cubic-shaped dung that can be used to mark territory, but how the feces become cubes is unknown.
Image source: #advancedwombattechnology pic.twitter.com/fIvMhyRoWS
— Diana S. Fleischman (@sentientist)
Their poop is more than square and dry and not smelly, so National Geographic's well-known Vloger Lucy Cooke can easily hold the wombat's poop in his hand with a smile.
At the beginning of 2018, Patricia Yang, a humor researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, set out to study the problem of wombat square feces: the intestinal shape of the Tasmanian wombat is very irregular, with two grooves like a gully; in addition, its intestines are also more malleable, helping to change the feces into a cube shape. Yang presents only a very helpful explanation, and more answers need to be further studied. But about the formation mechanism of wombat square feces, some netizens speculate - "definitely pulled out their own pinch." ”
Angel of The Rafaces: Heroes in the Australian Fire
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has released a report that as of 28 July 2020, bushfires in Australia may have killed 3 billion animals.
The koala, who struggled in the fire, was later rescued from the heat by local enthusiasts.
(Screenshot from CCTV News)
In January 2020, a female koala suffered a third-degree burn to her foot, and even though she survived the fire, the animals were threatened with dehydration and starvation.
At the end of 2019, a forest in Victoria was burned down, and road signs marking kangaroos and wombats stood in ruins, but the forest was long gone.
Image source: DOUG GIMESY
Earlier this year, fires swept across the highlands south of Sydney. According to John Creighton, a local wombat caregiver, "When the sun rises, there's nothing but pitch black. I thought I would see hundreds of injured animals crawling out in the morning, but there was only a dead silence, no birds, no koalas, no kangaroos —
But, there are also wombats.
They are the only animals that have survived the fire. ”
Photograph by JOEL SARTORE
Wombats are good at digging holes, often up to 20-30 meters deep, and hiding deep underground can help them escape a disaster. And in this fiery disaster, the wombats have become full angels. As one of the world's most burrowing animals, they generously allow other animals to take refuge in their homes and allow other species to "threaten" their territories, including lizards, rabbits, koalas and even kangaroos.
(Screenshot from matadornetwork.com)
But thousands of wombats, though able to escape the fire, died of starvation and thirst trapped in the ground by the fire, or dehydrated after fleeing the fire; in addition, when a downpour extinguished the fire, the rain also flooded the wombat hole, and many died of drowning.
In January 2020, wildlife care workers fed male Tasmanian wombats with bottles. A few weeks ago, a fire destroyed the Wildlife Refuge in Victoria, Australia, and the wombat was rescued along with other animals.
"It's like a dog!"
The wombat in the picture above, named "George," is playing with animal activist Tim Faulkner. In 2016, a passerby found George when his mother wombat was hit by a car, and in February 2017, George was rescued and sheltered by The Australian Reptile Park, where he would live in the new home until George was ready to return to nature. During this time, George was intimate with the staff, and the little guy was incredibly clingy, as if he had forgotten that he was a wombat, like a cute dog.
Coincidentally, in mid-March this year, a small wombat named "Elsie" was rescued by a kind passerby. Elsie's mother was also killed by a car; but unlike the round, heavy George above, Elsie weighed only 120 grams when she was rescued from her dead mother's nursery bag.
(Source: BoredPanda)
It stayed in a heated incubator for more than two months, and when it was first rescued, the little one had kangaroo herpes and staphylococcal infections and had been properly treated. It starts walking this week, but can only wake up for a maximum of one hour a day.
Rescuers took Elsie to ACT Wildlife, a local organisation in the Australian Capital Territory that focuses on injuries, illness and isolation. Prior to caring for Elsie, Wombat Coordinator Lindy had volunteered to provide professional care for wombats for up to 10 years.
Today, due to the impact of the epidemic, many rescuers can only temporarily leave wombat orphans in their own care. Emily Small, the founder of the Goongerah Wombat Orphanage, was unable to travel from her Melbourne apartment to an orphanage 450 kilometres away due to the COVID-19 lockdown in Australia, so she cared for Langdon and two other wombats at home.
Emily Small is in her living room, holding Langdon, a 6-month-old orphan, wombat.
Emily Small often takes wombats who have lost their parents, are sick or injured back to their wombat orphanages and release them into the wild when they recover.
Emily Small feeds two wombats in a bottle in her bedroom. Pups need special formula, but covid-19 has made it harder to buy locally.
Rehabilitation may not be fully effective. In fact, the first wombat that Emily Small and her mother took in was dead. After the wombat died, the mother and daughter cried and swore never to adopt a wombat again. But it didn't take long for the oath to be broken, and whenever they saw an orphaned baby wombat, there was no way to refuse.
At Emily Small's home, Langdon and Bronson, who are 7 months old, sleep in "artificial nursery bags." Like all marsupials, wombats give birth to underdeveloped pups and then stay in their mother's nursery bag for 6 months before coming out.
After about 18 months of age and 15-25 kg,
These orphaned wombats are returned to nature.
Buy Keith Armor Pure Titanium Bowl