Jamie123 Posted February 29 Report Share Posted February 29 (edited) I just discovered that the only wombats in the UK are in Hammerton Zoo in Cambridgeshire. London Zoo is massive, and you'd think they'd have any animal you can think of, but no, they have no wombats. No wombats today. Or any other day. I've half a mind to go to Hammerton just to see the wombats. I like wombats. Though an adult wombat can do you quite an injury if you annoy it (which apparently is not all that difficult). They are big and heavy and can run fast, and getting hit by one would not be pleasant at all. And the oddest thing about them is that they poo cubes. I remember reading that in Physics World a few years back This is a good video about wombats: Edited February 29 by Jamie123 mikbone and zil2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 1 Author Report Share Posted March 1 (edited) The collective noun for wombats is a "wisdom". So Hammerton Zoo has a wisdom of wombats. Wombats can run 25mph, which is only slightly slower than a galloping horse. Edited March 1 by Jamie123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
askandanswer Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 I remember being amazed the first time I saw a wombat run. Until then I had only seen them move at a very slow pace. For a moment I thought it was chasing me and I got a bit worried , but when I changed direction it ran straight past me. Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 1 Author Report Share Posted March 1 (edited) 3 hours ago, askandanswer said: I remember being amazed the first time I saw a wombat run. Until then I had only seen them move at a very slow pace. For a moment I thought it was chasing me and I got a bit worried , but when I changed direction it ran straight past me. I've been thinking all the way home. A very fast runner (like Roger Bannister) can run a four minute mile. Four minutes go into one hour 15 times, so that's 15 miles per hour. Quite a lot slower than a wombat. Now if a wombat runs at 25mph, it covers a mile in 1/25 hours which is 60/25=12/5=2.4 minutes. However, it can only run at 25mph for about 90 seconds at a time, but could no doubt run for longer at a slower speed So the question remains: can a wombat run a 4 minute mile? Let's ask ChatGPT... Could a wombat run a 4 minute mile? No, it's highly unlikely. Wombats are not built for speed, as they have short legs and a stocky build, which is more suited for burrowing and digging rather than running long distances at high speeds. Are you sure? Wombats can run quite fast! While wombats can reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) over short distances, they are not built for sustained speed or endurance. Running a 4-minute mile, which requires maintaining an average speed of 15 miles per hour (24 kilometers per hour) for four consecutive minutes, would be highly unlikely for a wombat due to their physiology and energy reserves. I'm not convinced. What do you think? (Another picture of a wombat) Edited March 1 by Jamie123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
askandanswer Posted March 2 Report Share Posted March 2 (edited) 8 hours ago, Jamie123 said: I've been thinking all the way home. A very fast runner (like Roger Bannister) can run a four minute mile. Four minutes go into one hour 15 times, so that's 15 miles per hour. Quite a lot slower than a wombat. Now if a wombat runs at 25mph, it covers a mile in 1/25 hours which is 60/25=12/5=2.4 minutes. However, it can only run at 25mph for about 90 seconds at a time, but could no doubt run for longer at a slower speed So the question remains: can a wombat run a 4 minute mile? Let's ask ChatGPT... Could a wombat run a 4 minute mile? No, it's highly unlikely. Wombats are not built for speed, as they have short legs and a stocky build, which is more suited for burrowing and digging rather than running long distances at high speeds. Are you sure? Wombats can run quite fast! While wombats can reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour (40 kilometers per hour) over short distances, they are not built for sustained speed or endurance. Running a 4-minute mile, which requires maintaining an average speed of 15 miles per hour (24 kilometers per hour) for four consecutive minutes, would be highly unlikely for a wombat due to their physiology and energy reserves. I'm not convinced. What do you think? (Another picture of a wombat) Its really hard to imagine a wombat maintaining that sort of speed for more than, at a guess, 90 seconds on flat ground. I suspect they would have considerable energy reserves given how fat they are and how little they generally move. Edited March 2 by askandanswer Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 2 Author Report Share Posted March 2 OK let's see that we can do. During the 90 seconds of the wombat's 25mph sprint it covers 25*1.5/60=15/24 mile. If the force impeding its progress is proportional to its speed then the energy it expends can be expressed 25*15/24 (bespoke unit system). Now if it travels at only 15mph, we can divide the "energy" by 15 to get 25/24=1 1/24 miles. So it just about beats Roger Bannister. However this is a very simplistic model and I haven't taken account of the wombat's kinetic energy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 2 Author Report Share Posted March 2 (edited) On 3/1/2024 at 8:07 PM, askandanswer said: I remember being amazed the first time I saw a wombat run. Until then I had only seen them move at a very slow pace. For a moment I thought it was chasing me and I got a bit worried , but when I changed direction it ran straight past me. Was this out in the wild, or was it in some kind of park? It must be wonderful to see these exotic animals living with nature. We do have wild deer and ponies here in the uk*, and I did once see a moose in Maine. I never saw a bear though. (Except in the zoo.) Oh and I once saw a wild alligator when I was on a swamp tour from New Orleans. It wasn't as big as I'd expected though. The guide was making it jump out of the water by dangling a chicken leg over it on the end of a string. The lady sitting beside me in the boat told me he was being very stupid. * We do of course have plenty of smaller wild animals like foxes, badgers, rabbits, weasels etc. Foxes are a nuisance. They get into your rubbish and scatter it all over your lawn. Edited March 4 by Jamie123 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
askandanswer Posted March 2 Report Share Posted March 2 2 hours ago, Jamie123 said: Was this out in the wild, or was it in some kind of park? It must be wonderful to see these exotic animals living with nature. We do have wild deer and ponies here in the uk, and I did once see a moose in Maine. I never saw a bear though. (Except in the zoo.) Oh and I once saw a wild alligator when I was on a swamp tour from New Orleans. It wasn't as big as I'd expected though. The guide was making it jump out of the water by dangling a chicken leg over it on the end of a string. The lady sitting beside me in the boat told me he was being very stupid. We encountered this wombat wandering along the side of the road when we were on a trip to the south coast. It was unusual to see a wombat wandering around so close to a road during the day so we got out and had a closer look. Something, maybe us, must have scared it because suddenly it started running. I think it was heading for its hole. Unfortunately, I see far more dead wombats than live ones by the side of the road. There is a place about an hour from where I now live that does jumping crocodile tours. You can take a boat the size of a small ferry which puts you well above the water line or you can take what is commonly referred to as a "tinnie" which is a very small boat which puts you almost at the same level as the crocodils. We took the tinnie. This part of the Adelaide River has a very dense crocodile population. We saw about 10 crocs in less than a kilometer. https://www.adrenaline.com.au/tours/darwin/jumpings-crocodile-cruise-adelaide-river/ Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 2 Author Report Share Posted March 2 1 hour ago, askandanswer said: https://www.adrenaline.com.au/tours/darwin/jumpings-crocodile-cruise-adelaide-river/ The elderly couple don't look too alarmed by Mr Crocky! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 4 Author Report Share Posted March 4 Another thing about wombats is that the pouch faces backwards, so that it doesn't get filled with soil when the wombat is digging. It also must make it easier for the joey to get into after it is born. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 4 Author Report Share Posted March 4 2 minutes ago, Jamie123 said: Another thing about wombats is that the pouch faces backwards, so that it doesn't get filled with soil when the wombat is digging. It also must make it easier for the joey to get into after it is born. Joey looking backwards out of pouch. askandanswer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 4 Author Report Share Posted March 4 It is illegal to keep wombats as pets, but you can have a virtual one. This is mine. His name is Willie the Wombat. zil2 and mordorbund 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil2 Posted March 4 Report Share Posted March 4 Something seems a little off with Willie the Wombat. You might want to contact a virtual vet... askandanswer and Jamie123 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 4 Author Report Share Posted March 4 2 hours ago, zil2 said: Something seems a little off with Willie the Wombat. You might want to contact a virtual vet... He does look a bit peaky. Maybe he has a virus. zil2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil2 Posted March 4 Report Share Posted March 4 4 minutes ago, Jamie123 said: He does look a bit peaky. Maybe he has a virus. His head also seems a bit swollen. That's never a good sign... Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
askandanswer Posted March 5 Report Share Posted March 5 13 hours ago, Jamie123 said: Joey looking backwards out of pouch. How interesting! I've never seen a baby wombat in a pouch before. Lots of joey kangaroos in pouches, but never a wombat. Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 5 Author Report Share Posted March 5 A normal house cat (felis catus) can run at 30mph, considerably faster than a wombat, and faster even than Usain Bolt's record of 27.5mph. It seems to me that athletics is all about humans achieving things as best they can with their limited bodies which are no mean feats at all for animals in general. Human sport is the paralympics of the animal kingdom. zil2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil2 Posted March 5 Report Share Posted March 5 1 hour ago, Jamie123 said: A normal house cat (felis catus) can run at 30mph Klaw was doing this earlier - from the master bed, down the hall and almost smashing into the farthest window in the house - then back again as soon as I looked at him. It was time for the squirrelies, apparently. Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted March 5 Report Share Posted March 5 1 hour ago, Jamie123 said: A normal house cat (felis catus) can run at 30mph, considerably faster than a wombat, and faster even than Usain Bolt's record of 27.5mph. It seems to me that athletics is all about humans achieving things as best they can with their limited bodies which are no mean feats at all for animals in general. Human sport is the paralympics of the animal kingdom. Mmmmm...I think probably not. We aren't nearly the hunters that cats are, we don't have the sense of smell that dogs have, we don't have the visual acuity of an eagle. But we do well at what we're fitted for, just like a whale or a slug or an owl. For instance, there is no distance runner that can match humans. When it comes to "persistence hunting", we're the champions. Dogs and doglike animals (e.g. hyenas) do some persistence hunting, but nothing like humans can do. When it comes to intentionally modifying our external environment, again, we're the champions. So we fill our niche and do a wonderful, perhaps incredible, job at it. But we don't run as fast as horses or cats, that's true, or pull the weight that a bovine can pull. Our particular brilliance is in yoking the oxen to pull things for us. Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zil2 Posted March 5 Report Share Posted March 5 1 hour ago, Vort said: Our particular brilliance is in yoking the oxen to pull things for us. Did I ever tell the story of when someone shipped me a computer and 19" CRT monitor to my work and I had to figure out how to get it all home in my little Honda Civic (the boxes were HUGE). One of the guys at work said, "You know, we men have ways of taking care of these things. We'd pull the car under a tree, get a rope and throw it over a branch to lift the box onto the car roof, then use the rope to tie it down .... blah blah blah." When he was done I said, "We women have ways of taking care of these things, too. ... We get men to do it for us." Jamie123 and Vort 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 5 Author Report Share Posted March 5 (edited) 4 hours ago, Vort said: For instance, there is no distance runner that can match humans. Interesting. According to this article, https://www.quora.com/Do-humans-actually-rank-high-in-the-animal-kingdom-as-long-distance-runners humans do beat horses for persistence running, but sled dogs, ostriches, camels and pronghorns (yes, I had to look that one up too) do better. A pronghorn. Edited March 6 by Jamie123 zil2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironhold Posted March 6 Report Share Posted March 6 On 3/5/2024 at 1:48 PM, Vort said: Mmmmm...I think probably not. We aren't nearly the hunters that cats are, we don't have the sense of smell that dogs have, we don't have the visual acuity of an eagle. But we do well at what we're fitted for, just like a whale or a slug or an owl. For instance, there is no distance runner that can match humans. When it comes to "persistence hunting", we're the champions. Dogs and doglike animals (e.g. hyenas) do some persistence hunting, but nothing like humans can do. When it comes to intentionally modifying our external environment, again, we're the champions. So we fill our niche and do a wonderful, perhaps incredible, job at it. But we don't run as fast as horses or cats, that's true, or pull the weight that a bovine can pull. Our particular brilliance is in yoking the oxen to pull things for us. Humans invent new and creative ways to kill. Cats just tear your throat out and are done with it unless they're bored. Yeah, cats are among nature's murder machines. People keep forgetting this and so don't respect cats as they should. Jamie123 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie123 Posted March 7 Author Report Share Posted March 7 On 3/5/2024 at 7:48 PM, Vort said: When it comes to intentionally modifying our external environment, again, we're the champions. There is no doubt about this, but we don't win at sport by modifying our environment, but by building up our strength, speed and stamina. No one ever won a marathon by inventing the bicycle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vort Posted March 7 Report Share Posted March 7 47 minutes ago, Jamie123 said: No one ever won a marathon by inventing the bicycle. Funny you should say that, since the tragedy at Marathon might have been prevented by something like a bicycle. mordorbund and Jamie123 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
askandanswer Posted April 14 Report Share Posted April 14 On 3/6/2024 at 3:46 AM, Jamie123 said: A normal house cat (felis catus) can run at 30mph, considerably faster than a wombat, and faster even than Usain Bolt's record of 27.5mph. It seems to me that athletics is all about humans achieving things as best they can with their limited bodies which are no mean feats at all for animals in general. Human sport is the paralympics of the animal kingdom. From the ABC, Australia' government funded national broadcaster a few days ago: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-04-13/how-fast-can-a-womat-actually-run-faster-than-usain-bolt/103648118 How fast does a wombat really run? An investigation into the 40 kph phenomenon Vort 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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