Wombat combat

[Aliantha]

Oh and wild boars also have tusks and they're carnivors.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Oh and wild boars also have tusks and they're carnivors.

I think they're omnivores. And I'm not sure about tusks in general - should they be viewed as big teeth, consistent with being a carnivore? Or as horns-growing-in-a-funny-place, consistent with a being herbivore?
Boar's tusks seem to fit the former, but elephant's tusks seem to fit the latter.
hmmmmmmmmmm.


I might also need to consider the predator/scavenger difference. Do boars actually hunt? or just scavenge?

[Aliantha]

Haven't you ever watched Razorback?

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Ooooh...Dr ZenGum. What was your subject for your phd?

It was in philosophy, not the European post-modernist type but the Anglo-American proto-science type.

I was looking at the relationship between the scientific third-person description of the events inside human heads (including physics, chemistry, psychology, cognitive science, etc) and the subjective, first-person conscious experience of those events (ooohhh, BLUE!).
Roughly, the concepts we use to describe the events in scientific terms, and the concepts we use to recognize those events by means of conscious introspection, refer to the same things, but do so by different means and are conceptually independent of each other.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Haven't you ever watched Razorback?

No, actually

Tell me, was that reviewed in Nature by any chance :p ? Next you'll be citing Black Sheep to prove that sheep are predators too.

Ok, they hunt. If you say so. I didn't know, that's all.

[Aliantha]

It's just a movie. I don't know if they actually hunt. Probably not.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

It's just a movie. I don't know if they actually hunt. Probably not.

Don't back down now! You'd just convinced me!

I recall wild pigs being cited as a factor in the demise of the dodo. Maybe this was hunting of adult birds, maybe it was more eating of eggs.

Can any of the hunting-inclined cellarites help us? Mercenary? Zippy? UG?

[Aliantha]

OK, here's something for you. My father used to go hunting wild pigs out west. If you bothered a bore it'd chase you down. I don't know if you'd call that hunting, but it's pretty close.

They definitely do eat meat. Omnivorous would be the right term though.

[DucksNuts]

My brother owns 140 acres up Wombat Hill. When the dogs corner them, they just duck their head into their tummy and leave their backs exposed...they are like rocks when they do that.

Kill ya....hell yeah, the little bastards will flip a small car if hit when crossing the road.

My Aunty had 2 pet Wombats, Rosie and Gup....they were great, but when they got grumpy they just used my run at you flat out and knock your legs out from under you.

A Koala took off half the skin on my leg one nite, I decided to try and rescue it off the road....ungrateful little fucker went mad...squealing and tearing me to shreds.

If they piss on ya tent or car...it reeks of eucalyptus for weeks.

I've heard stories of Roo's drowning dogs in dams....the dogs swim out to get the roo and it just holds them under the water with the front paws.

Wild Pigs are the devil!!

[ZenGum]

I had a colleague whose dog was drowned by a 'roo in exactly this manner.

I've also heard how wombats defend themselves from dingoes. They lie head inwards in their burrow, presenting their hard, fat-padded rump to the dog. When the dingo get frustrated with snapping at the wombat's bum, it tries to climb over them and get at the head... at which point the wombat simply stands up and crushes the dingo against the roof of the burrow. I don't know if this is true but I like it.

For a country with no major predators (except Crocs in the north) we've got some bloody surly, grouchy herbivores.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Which leads us to "The Song of Marsupial Fandom." In full:

The Ballad of Marsupial/Monotremal Fandom
by Denny Lien, Al Kuhfeld, Erwin S. Strauss
(To "The Temperance Union Song")
These verses came from "The HopSFA Hymnal."

We're coming, we're coming, our strange little band.
Adoring marsupials, we do take our stand.
We do not like reptiles because we do think
That once you like reptiles you must love a skink!

CHORUS: Hooray, hooray for kangaroos,
For kangaroos,
For kangaroos!
Hooray, hooray for kangaroos!
That's the song of Marsupial Fandom!

We do not bug wombats 'cause wombats bug back.
And no one can live through a wombat attack.
Oh, can you imagine a gorier scene
Than bugging a wombat until he turns mean? CHORUS.

Tasmanian devils are mean as can be.
They'll gladly bite you and they'll gladly bite me.
Can you imagine a gorier sight
Than Tasmanian devils a'spoilin' to fight? CHORUS.

The furry koala is gentler than these,
He doesn't bite people, he just climbs in trees.
Oh, can you imagine a scene with less grief
Than a koala turning over a new leaf? CHORUS.

We're coming, we're coming our strange little band.
Adoring marsupials, we do take our stand.
We also like monotremes, but feel a song
About them would only be two verses long.

SECOND CHORUS: Hooray, hooray for platypi,
For platypi,
For platypi,
Hooray, hooray for platypi,
That's the song of Monotremal Fandom!

We're coming, we're coming, our odd little band.
Adoring the monotremes we take our stand.
We don't like placentals 'cause tell us we beg:
How can someone born live ever be a good egg? SECOND CHORUS.

God stepped on the bill of the poor platypus.
That's how he came to have so flat a puss.
Oh, who can imagine how sad to be stuck
With a rear like a beaver and front like a duck.

Don't try to pet the tough spine'd echidna. (n.b.: pron. SPY-ned.)
If you don't mind, he' rather you did nae'.
Oh, can you imagine a scene more tranquil
Than an echnida op'ning up an anthill? SECOND CHORUS. (pron. OAP-ning)

We're coming, we're coming, our odd little band.
Adoring the monotremes we take our stand.
We'd sing evening long of monotremal lore,
But must end our song 'cause there ain't any more. SECOND CHORUS.

[ZenGum]

Vicious Pig - (not) off the rails.

ORA, Gunma [ Japan ] -- A woman sustained minor injuries after a weekend railroad crossing collision -- with a rampaging wild boar, police said.

The 60-year-old woman suffered a minor injury to her knee after the boar racing along the Tobu Koizumi Line tracks slammed into her as she traversed a railroad crossing.

The boar raced away and has not been found.

Police said the crossing the woman had been using had a gate and warning lights and bells, but these had not been activated because the tracks were being used by the wild animal and not a train.

So now the signs should read:
"Look both ways for trains .. and wild boar."

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Wild boars playing choo-choo... what will those clever Japanese come up with next?

[ZenGum]

The boar probably wasn't really wild ... it was obviously very well trained.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

... and here, you can still see its tracks...