Dispensary Corner 10 Jul 15
July 10, 2015
Rockhampton Zoo in
Queensland is taking practical
action in response to the world’s
burgeoning obesity crisis.
At issue is the growing weight of
some of the wombats at the zoo,
who zoologists say have adapted
with alacrity to a new exercise
regime.
The program, which sees the
marsupials leashed and taken on
walks like dogs, started as a way
for a 20-year-old southern hairy
nosed wombat named Donna to
shed some kilos.
But the regimen has now
expanded to the stage where
six of the zoo’s wombats have
“adapted to daily harness walks”.
The walks were introduced
because other measures just
didn’t work for Donna (pictured).
“She’s quite a lazy wombat,” said
team leader Yvette Fenning who
is reportedly close to completing
a master’s degree in wombat
husbandry.
“We tried putting her food bowl
at the other end of her den, but
decided we needed to be more
proactive,” she said.
However in a clear case of
“don’t try this at home,” she
warned against confusing the
“calm and tolerant” southern
hairy nosed wombats with their
“common wombat” cousins.
While the hairy-nosed wombats
are social creatures, “the common
is solitary and tends to be
territorial and aggressive.
“We’ve got one common
wombat...we did try to walk him
on a harness once,” Fenning said.
“it
ended
up with
four of us
running
for our
lives,” she
added.
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