Showing posts with label monster marsupial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monster marsupial. Show all posts

Thursday, 10 March 2011

The curious case of the Bungonia Bear



CFZ Australia blog reader and archivist David Hearder sent in this bizarre find from a 1965 edition of The Canberra Times.

The story details the killing of an unusually large wombat, dubbed the 'Bungonia Bear' by two brothers, claimed to be a mind-boggling four-feet long!

But the measurement isn't beyond the bounds of possibility - the largest of the three wombat species that inhabits eastern Australia, the common wombat (pictured below), can grow as big as 1150mm and weighing 22-39kg. The average size is about 1000mm and weigh 20-35kg.

It's possible the lads slightly exaggerated the size of the wombat...or perhaps it was a generously proportioned common wombat that was 4ft long...or maybe it was at the very small end of the spectrum of the monstrous marsupial's distant cousin - the 2786kg Pleistocene era Diprotodon (pictured above), which measured almost 10ft from nose to tail!






LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Recommended Reading