Wombat combat

[ZenGum]

From the ABC:

Wombat mauls bushfire survivor

A man is recovering in hospital after he was mauled by a wombat at Flowerdale, north-east of Melbourne.

Paramedic Robert Gill said Bruce Kringle, 60, was a survivor of the Black Saturday bushfires and was living in a caravan while he built a new home.

Mr Gill said when the man went to leave the caravan this morning, he found the wombat on his door mat.

"Unfortunately the gentleman stood on the wombat and the wombat proceeded to get rather nasty and attacked him and inflicted some wounds to his lower legs and also to his arms as well," Mr Gill said.

"It took about 20 minutes. He did try to exit the area and get away from the wombat but my belief is that it kept coming at him."

A local resident said the man managed to kill the wombat with an axe.

Mr Gill said other residents had had a run-in with the wombat earlier.

"They were able to exercise caution with him and get rid of him further down the road, but unfortunately the next stop was this gentleman's door mat," he said.

Mr Gill said the man was bitten on the arms and legs and taken to the Northern Hospital in a stable condition.

Mr Kringle's friend, Kelly Smith, said the wombat pulled him to the ground in the attack.

"Apparently it attacked his leg and got him to the ground and started attacking his chest, then Brucey killed the wombat and got taken to hospital in an ambulance," she said.

Jeff McClure from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) said it was highly unusual for a wombat to attack a person.

"Wombats that are in an advanced stage of mange will become very agitated from the suffering and the irritation of the mange," he said.

He said if wombats are approached or feel threatened they will rush towards someone.

"But it's not known that they will push the attack to where they would physically attack someone."

Twenty minutes to fight off a wombat?? I'm beginning to think US-style gun laws might not be such a bad idea after all.