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G'day, guys! Welcome to this episode
of Aussie English! Today have special
guest Nick Bean with us, who is the
president of MangeManagement.org.au.
So, Nick, can you tell me whereabouts
you're from in Australia and how you
ended up in the position that you
currently have working your arse off
to save a lot of wombats around Oz?

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Thank you, Pete. Great introduction
actually. I'm living in north east of
Melbourne, in the rural section and
we do have a lot of wildlife around,
I've been here 13 years I think, 14
years. How I got involved with
wombats is kind of...actually today
is kind of significant. Today we have
the 10th anniversary of the Black
Saturday bushfires.

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That's very true.

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And as a side effect of that what
happened was in the months after the
fire which was about a kilometer...
well it got to within about just over
a kilometer from my place. Therefore,
the creeks and everything up further
north got burnt out.

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Do you want to quickly give us a bit
of background, what was Black
Saturday?

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Look, I was kind of new to the whole
bush fire aspect.  I looked a little
naive I sort of watched it bubbling
away in the distance, dropping cold
sticks about the size of a biro on
us, two hours before the fire got
near us and I'm thinking is this
really bad or just a bit of a burn
sort of thing? You know, anyway.
Fortunately, one of my neighbors was
an ex CFA MFP fireman and he'd been
through the 62 fires which came
through here and so he was very well
versed in bushfire habit or behavior.
So, I spend a lot of the day with him
at the fence line watching the fire
and I want to do things like put
water out and wet things down and so
forth, but Johnny my neighbor just
said no, no look just just calm down.
If it does this, we will do this, if
it does this, we will do that. So he
had plans in his mind, you know, plan
A, plan B, plan C sort of thing and
he has a very calming influence which
was I still remember the feeling of
nervousness through my body, I was
just trembling, I wanted to do
things, but I didn't know what to do.

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I can't Imagine being in that
situation and for listeners who don't
know, Black Saturday was the worst
ever bushfires in Australia, right?
109 people?

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173.

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173? We lost a lot of lives, yeah,
that was it was insane, wasn't it?

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It was.

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So, you were there during that?

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So, it was coming towards us, you
could see it and then you could hear
it too. That was the other thing, it
was quite distinct and late in the
afternoon the wind changed and it
blew further north, I guess, and
that's what really saved us here, but
didn't help the Kinglake and other
people, unfortunately.

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That was the reason it was so deadly,
right? People were sort of in a
position where they thought they were
ok and the wind changed and thei fire
changed direction and caught a lot of
people off guard, right?

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So, yes if you look at the original
fire the way it was hitting it was
like a long cigar shaped sort of
fire, it's quite narrow. It would
have come through probably just north
of my place here, actually, if it'd
continued from that route. And in
some respects probably not a bad
thing because it was a long narrow
thing. Then you had the wind change
which came from a 90 degree angle and
it blew that narrow cigar shaped fire
across to the east in a big...the
hole front, you know, the whole long
depth of it became the front,
basically.

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That thin cigar line, effectively the
whole width of it suddenly became the
entire fire that was going forward in
that direction.

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And just went north east from there.
So, that was what really did it so,
but and then after that, well, you
know, we spent the following weeks
watching the tank escape past year,
because I was still putting out spot
fires two weeks afterwards basically
so, old trees that were still
burning, but anyway.

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There were hundreds of fires too,
right? I think I mentioned that on
the podcast recently talking about
bushfires in Australia and that when
we have a bushfire like Black
Saturday, it's not just one, usually
it's hundreds.

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Yeah and it's the effect of spotting,
I mean, from next door from here we
had Healesville at the back,
Healesville in Chum Creek, up through
that region they had fires,
Murrindindi was what they called it.
So, there's the Murrindindi Kilmore
fire which is this region and then
you had the Marysville fire which is
further east from here basically. So
some of them were started by embers,
some were started by people, some
were just started by, you know,
things failing if you like so,
there's a whole combination of things
and then you had fires up near
Bendigo and down in Gippsland and
yeah, like you said, there was
hundreds of them, unfortunately.

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It was pretty crazy, you see that
satellite photo, right? Of the state
and there's just plumes of smoke
everywhere from all these different
locations and it's like...

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So, actually from there so what
happened with wombats from that
perspective was they had nothing to
eat. So, we're near Diamond Creek and
for the next few months wombats would
come wandering down our direction
because we still had grass and things
to eat and then I remember from about
May to about October we had... I'm
near a main road and we lost five
wombats in that period to road kill.
So, they'd... the population density
increased, we had a lot more wombats
wandering around, we had a lot more
that were killed.

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No kidding? So, they'd all migrated
out of where that bushfire had come
through and obviously they'd
survived. How did they survive the
bushfire if it took out all the food
and everything?

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Well that was the catch. They
survived the fire by being in the
burrow, which is a wonderful location
and I wish I had a burrow.

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Very insulated, right? The
temperature stays pretty flat...

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It's actually kind of humid in a way,
everything is perfect. So, they all
came wandering down looking for food
which is fair enough and they found
food down here but they found an
increase in population. So, it just I
mean they kept wondering. So, as I
said, we lost five in five months
which was very... I've never had that
before. So, I was really quite angry,
I guess, because we'd lost so many
animals just from road kill and yet
there's nothing I could do about
that, but then we moved five years
later than that or five years from
there and five years ago I remember
heading out for a bike ride up, on
Australia Day, of all days, at about
8:00 in the morning. It was a fairly
warm morning and I'd gone about one
and a half kilometers up the road and
I could see a car stopped and
something in front was just ambling
across the road and I realized was a
wombat and I realized it probably had
mange and I thought well I've got to
do something. I can't just let this
continue. So, that's what, I got off
my bike I was in my lycra. I called a
friend who runs a wildlife shelter up
the road. She came down and gave her
a dose of something, I can't remember
what it was now, but we gave it a
dose, and that became my first wombat
and I started to treat and I
nicknamed him Curly because he had no
hair basically.

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And you were just able to as a person
who is obviously just an average
citizen in the public, you're allowed
to nurse wombats or did you have to
do some kind of special training to
be able to do that?

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Well, we left him in the field so, we
do treatment in the field and by
doing that, if yes, if I'd captured
him which would be illegal because
I'm not a wildlife carer.

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Even if they're sick? Even if they're
sick or?

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Correct, yeah, so you have to be a
registered Wildlife Care with DELP,
which is the government body in
Victoria. So, we basically treat them
in field because it's much easier in
some respects too, for various
reasons, but yeah that was my first
one so we did a thing, a technique
called 'pole and scoop'. So,
basically you have a poll probably
five feet long or a couple of metres
long and I have a little scoop at the
end, I put the Cydectin, which is the
stuff we used to kill the mange, and
you just poured along the back of the
body where the hair is and it soaks
into the skin and it's a bit like
using revolution or one of those
things for dogs and cats.

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The flea treatment, right? That you
in the back of the...

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Same principle, it gets into the
bloodstream, it kills things that are
latched on if you like and that's how
it works so, it's no different to
treating wombats as well.

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So what is mange? For those listening
who are thinking what on earth is
this disease that these wombats are
getting? What is mange, exactly?

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Mange is a little parasite and it
burrows the female, burrows into the
skin. She's very small, you can't see
her, but she burrows into the skin
and then she would lay eggs under the
skin, those eggs hatch, they come out
they mate on the outside of the skin
if you like. They then burrow back in
and it's a constant burrowing act
process that destroys the skin and
hair and they end up with... it's not
so much they die from there, they die
from secondary infections. Bacterial
things, a whole range of things.

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Is it also exposure to the elements?
Because I see quite a lot of these
animals with mange tend to lose all
their hair because they get this sort
of festering wounds on their outside,
rashes on the outside of their body.

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You get a couple of problems you get
in summertime you get blowflies line
basically and that's a pretty
terrible thing.

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I think you'd mentioned that in our
video you said one it being flyblown
I think, and I was like what? Wombats
can get flyblown. 'Cause grew up
going to my grandparent's farm and
they had sheep and we'd talk about a
sheep getting flyblown and that's why
they had to remove the tails from the
backs of the sheep.

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Yeah, that's why they docked them.
Yes.

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So, that can happen to wombats as
well?

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Yes. So, we've got open wounds, the
flies will lay their eggs and then
off they go, basically. So, it's a
combination of things. Summertime is
very difficult to treat mange because
you've got a couple of things
happening you have very poor
nutrition in the grass and the
wombats suffer from that. If they are
normally healthy and they don't have
mange, it's not a big drama. They
eat, but they don't...They lose
weight. If they have mange, it
compromised their body and it makes
them more difficult to bring back up
to a healthy state. And that's
usually late summer, early autumn
when we've got very poor grass or
food around. So, the best time to
treat mange I find is usually winter
and spring, really, when it's a bit
moister and it's a bit easier to deal
with them anyway. Not some issues.

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Is this something that's just unique
to wombats, this kind of mange or is
it something that all marsupials or
all Australian mammals can pass from
one another?

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Well, mange was... in humans it's
called scabies.

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Yeah, yeah.

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It was wonderfully produced in this
country by early settlers on
themselves and on dogs and cattle and
that sort of thing. So, basically
it's quite a common thing in some of
the rural outback communities in
Western Australia, for example.
Scabies is quite a big issue. It's
interesting you treat it slightly
differently on people, you have to
have a cream with a pyrethrin or some
chemical in it which kills the mange
mite, but you literally have to cover
yourself from head to toe.

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You don't have to use the 5-foot
pole, fortunately.

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Some people you might have to, but
anyway.

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And obviously it's very contagious
because it is passed on by touching,
right?

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Yes. So, clothing, bedding, this sort
of thing, but in the case of the
wombat burrow what can typically
happens is the wombat will share a
burrow with another wombat. They'll
have, actually they'll have multiple
dens in the burrow, but they'll block
mites and the mites can live for
about one or two weeks off the host.

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These are mites that are mange or
they are separate parasite?

48
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So no, it's a parasite. The mange
might can then come off and then fall
on the ground and then just lie there
for a while and the next host comes
along, like the next wombat then it
will pick it up. So, that's one of
the common ways. There's an issue
where people might try and euthanize
a wombat because it has mange without
treating it. The problem there is you
end up having a burrow that's empty,
so the next wombat will come along
"oh, there is is an empty burrow, I
think I'll use that one".

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That makes so much sense, you would
never really think either there's an
empty burrow full of insights that's
not being defended. And so what would
happen if you if you treat one wombat
and it goes back to its burrow that
is full of these parasites, will
those parasites die either by jumping
on the wombat and being poisoned or
just from lack of exposure to wombats
they can jump on?

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Both actually. So, basically we treat
them so that the life cycle of the
female mange mite is about four weeks
and they can live off hosts for,
let's say, one of two weeks so, let's
say you do a treatment program for
eight weeks, you're going to exhaust
the burrow of mites and you're going
to kill the mites on the hosts so, if
you do it to a number of burrows,
then you're going to increase that
sort of range of feed burrows if you
like.

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So, you won't get like reinfection
kind of thing happening again.

52
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Yes, there has been some very
interesting research done in the last
10 or so years which does show that
there is a immune reaction to the
mange mite. Now, what that means is
that when you have a wombat with
mange and you treat it, the next
time, and it's completely clear of
mange, the next time it might pick up
some mites they have far less of a
chance of reinfecting the wombat. So,
it's kind of interesting, actually.

53
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That's kind of like a vaccine then at
the same time.

54
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Exactly. So, when I've been speaking
to some of the top researchers in the
country about it, at least a couple
of them have said yes she could have
a technically a vaccine that could do
that and you could have a wonderful
one shot treatment, but he's going to
spend 10 or 20 million dollars on a
vaccine for wombats? I don't think
there's going to be too many people
out there, unfortunately. I'd love
to.

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What's the sort of prognosis for
wombats if you were to do nothing,
compared to doing what you are doing
currently? Are you aiming to
hopefully completely eradicate mange
or is it something you just need to
manage? Obviously, hence the name.

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I think, look, I think for the
next...I'm going to say, maybe 10
years it's kind of a status quo of
just treating them and trying not to
make it get out of hand. A good
example of it going out of hand is a
national park down in northern
Tasmania called Narawntapu National
Park. Now, probably 10 years ago had,
I don't know, 250 wombats. I was down
there about three years ago, they
were down to 60 wombats, I believe
they are probably less than 10
wombats in the national park down
there now and they've surely been
eradicated by mange. So, what will
probably happen then, it goes through
cycles, you'll find that the wombats
will die out. There'll be no mange,
the wombats will come back in from
outside areas, the population will
build up again, but it's kind of
that's a very extreme example of it
happening. So, the other problem is
that it's not just mange it's killing
wombats. Let's go back a step. The
life cycle of a wombat is roughly
that say 15 years in the wild, 15
maybe 18 years if you're lucky. In
that timeframe, the female she has a
joey, about every... and only one
joey, there are occasions where you
might see twins, but it's very rare.
Let's say they have one joey every
two and a half to three years. So, in
their breeding last cycle, which
might start at the age of four, they
might have five, maybe six wombats in
total.

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So, they're actually quite different
from say kangaroos which are also
marsupials and have a completely
different breeding cycle, where they
can, I think they can have like three
offspring happening at one time,
right?

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They can only wonder if they can have
an embryo that's attached to the
teat. And so, a wombat actually have
two teats. A kangaroo has four teats.
So, a kangaroo will actually have one
in the pouch attached to it to the
teat all the time and then it'll have
a second out of patch joey that will
still feed from one of the other
teats. And so, yes, it can keep that
going. And it can also regulate the
growth and the speed of the embryo.
So, it's kind of interesting,
depending on the food and that sort
of thing.

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This is how they come back, right?
Like rats, you know, after a drought
or something because they have
diapause, right? Where they can just
effectively hit pause when there is
no food and it's really dry and then
get it going again when it's...

60
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It's a wonderful adaption to such a
harsh environment like Australia,
basically.

61
00:18:07,538 --> 00:18:10,660
Except that wombats don't have it,
obviously, they are a bit slower.

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Yeah, there has been research in
South Australia where they have the
southern hairy nosed wombat and it
shows that after a drought, the
following year, they have a great
reduction in the number of newly born
joeys so, their population is... it
lags by about 12 months. So,
basically what I was sort of getting
to was with the life cycle, you might
have five wombats that are born for
that female and let's say you might
lose one to mange, you might lose one
to road kill and one two people
either shooting or dog attack or
something like that. So,
realistically for a breeding pair of
wombats they might really only have
two, maybe three young that replace
them. So, it's a very slow cycle,
unfortunately.

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00:18:58,810 --> 00:19:12,160
So, how do most of them end up dying?
Is actually a quite a lot at least
around humans where it's not natural
deaths. You know, these diseases that
have been introduced like mange, it's
road kill and it is dog attacks and
hunting as well.

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00:19:12,250 --> 00:20:12,790
Yeah, dog attack and people just
shooting them. In north east
Victoria, unfortunately. So in South
Australia and New South Wales wombats
are protected species, in Victoria
they are protected to a point. There
are certain areas around particularly
north east Victoria where you don't
need a permit to shoot wombats,
basically. So, if you have land and
you feel that wombat is doing damage
to your land, you can simply go out
and just shoot them if you wish.
Certain areas you need to get a
permit from DELP and you can look at
the Dell website under, I'm trying to
think of the name now, there is a
page on their website that shows the
number of permits and animals
actually culled each year basically
so, wombats have gone up from, I
think, fifteen hundred a year, 10
years ago to about 4000 a year or
something like that.

65
00:20:13,360 --> 00:20:14,360
In numbers or in...?

66
00:20:15,497 --> 00:20:16,133
Permits to shoot.

67
00:20:16,134 --> 00:20:23,000
Oh, really? So, it's doing that much
damage to farms, is it? Because I
assume that it's not people just
going out there and having fun is
shooting random wombat, is it?

68
00:20:25,020 --> 00:20:51,374
You do get that. But basically that
the permit system is you have to
prove wombats doing damage to your
property. Unfortunately, that can
also stem from, if you like, so maybe
most damage is usually around fences,
they have to get through the fences
so, the problem is that most farmers
will fence down to the ground and
therefore it doesn't create a pathway
for the wombats, so the wombats are
going to dig under.

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I can get around, this is easy!

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I'll just dig, that's what I'm born
for. And they don't allow for that
and therefore the fences get damaged.

71
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There are some people who use these
swinging logs and swinging gates to
let wombats through, but not let the
stock through and it works quite
well.

72
00:21:13,570 --> 00:21:26,076
I lived in Canberra last year for six
months and there was a reserve right
near our house and they had a bunch
of those and then the kangaroos were
using them all the time and there
were echidnas and stuff around and it
seemed like the animals kind of
worked out pretty quickly.

73
00:21:26,077 --> 00:21:26,476
How to get through?

74
00:21:27,042 --> 00:21:43,960
That against you and that there was
no... When they when they had those
there was no obvious damage to the
fences from kangaroos digging under
them or pushing them up or getting
caught in the fences with their legs
and carking it. So, it seems like a
pretty easy solution.

75
00:21:44,560 --> 00:22:06,860
There are solutions around whether
people are willing to do it and I
think it's a generational cultural
thing. So, some people just have
certain fixed opinions about things
and, unfortunately, wombats aren't
high on the list of things so, yeah
that's one of the big killers, is
basically culling of the animals,
whether it's legal or legal sort of
thing.

76
00:22:07,090 --> 00:22:14,122
And when they're getting attacked by
dogs, is that people's pets that
they're just letting out and about or
is that wild dogs that you guys or we
have up in the forest there?

77
00:22:14,962 --> 00:22:28,990
Predominantly pet dogs if you like,
some wombat might go on someone's
property and then they've got a dog,
goes out and bites it. Wombats
actually do bite each other, it's not
a problem as such.

78
00:22:29,710 --> 00:23:01,034
I thought they were pretty vicious, I
remember going to Wilson's prom when
I was a little kid and I was like 5
and asked my Dad "can I chase the
wombat?" and he's like yeah, go for
it and see what happens. So, I chased
after it and it didn't run just
turned around and chased me off the
boardwalk into the intertidal river
and I remember just being so shocked,
being like why is this friendly,
lovely little Australian critter
chasing me and he's like you got to
be careful, man, that they'll bite
you. They've got...I think they are
like a really bony plate in their
bottom, right? That they can use.

79
00:23:02,130 --> 00:23:39,730
They do and that's what they use for
attack and protection. And so what
they'll do is, if they do attack each
other, they end up biting themselves
on the back because they turn around
and use it as a defensive play and
their teeth are designed to scrape.
So, they tend to make a bit of a mess
on their back and it looks pretty
messy. It's fine. It's always been
like that. The trouble with dogs is
dogs tend to go for the head and neck
and also their teeth are designed to
puncture so, they puncture through
the skin rather than scrape and
that's when you get maggot problems
and then you... yeah, it gets messy.

80
00:23:40,360 --> 00:23:46,470
It's not so much that they're killing
the wombats, it's they're wounding
them and then that leads to more
problems down the road.

81
00:23:47,043 --> 00:23:51,063
Look at it technically it's kind of
actually hard to kill a wombat from
their perspective.

82
00:23:52,168 --> 00:23:54,270
I was thinking, they are little
tanks, right?

83
00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:59,707
Yeah. So it's a secondary side effect
that, unfortunately, does them in.
So...

84
00:24:00,130 --> 00:24:21,430
And so when we're driving along
Australian roads and we see them on
the side of the road, I'm sure some
of the listeners will have seen that
especially around forested areas,
around Victoria and New South Wales.
How does that eventuate? How do
wombats... why do they just cross the
road and decide to dance in front of
cars? What's the situation there and
is there a way to get around that?

85
00:24:25,110 --> 00:25:04,660
Good question! We're looking at some
technical approaches using sensors to
indicate...There is research being
done in a couple directions. One is
to convert, so you might have heard
the term smart roads what they want
to do with some roads is to add
electronic sensors in them and they
can be used to relay information to
cars. This is probably way down the
track, and one only approach is,
we're talking to a professor about
it, was to add information about
things on the road. So, whether it be
a wombat or a tree or something like
that.

86
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:09,695
So, anything when it puts pressure on
the road there's some kind of signal
that gets sent to cars that are
coming in that direction.

87
00:25:09,696 --> 00:25:12,860
And it could convey it to the car or
something like that.

88
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:40,060
That's way down the track. There's
other things where they do wildlife
detectors in some countries like
Canada and some of the Scandinavian
countries for Mooses and these sorts
things where they're big animals and
they have detectors either on the car
or along the roadside that just flash
when there's something there, so
there's things like that, but look,
wombats are just...they're very smart
animals, actually, surprising, but
they're very stubborn.

89
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:51,159
Yeah. And is it that they have their
kind of territory and they know, you
know, my I've got a field over here
that I go and eat in every evening
and they just cross the road at
night, don't understand what a car
is.

90
00:25:51,590 --> 00:26:08,180
No, they try, and they do use pipes.
I mean, we've got some pipes around
here where wombats do cross under the
road your guess is two or three feet
in diameter, it's big thing and not
only wombats but foxes use it and
that sort of thing.

91
00:26:08,220 --> 00:26:11,212
So, you don't want them to use it,
there should be a sign saying "use
the road".

92
00:26:12,610 --> 00:26:13,610
And they do.

93
00:26:14,280 --> 00:26:19,540
There's quite a lot of foxes on the
side of the road, probably more than
wombats to be honest which is
probably a bad sign.

94
00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:35,320
So, look, I mean, wombats had seen
winter, I must admit, when it's wet
road it's sort of...and they got very
black skin or fur, it's hard to see
them on the road, I understand that,
but I just slowed down at night and
just take it easy, anyway.

95
00:26:35,470 --> 00:26:42,940
Is that where most of those road
kills are occurring as well? It is it
dawn or dusk or during the evening
like the night when it's dark?

96
00:26:43,450 --> 00:27:24,270
Yeah just during the night when it's
dark so, although that said, wombats
will come out during the daytime in
winter when it's an ice cool day. So,
the other aspect actually, that's
interesting, a lot of people assume
that wombats are nocturnal and if you
see them during the day, they must
have a problem. No, it's not the
case. Wombats are a bit like us from
the aspect that in a nice cold
winter's day when the sun is out you
like to go for a bit of a sun bake
and I've had plenty of wombats that
I've gone up to on the roadside
thinking oh, they've been hit! And
only to find, when I'm about to turn
them over, then he looks up and
wonders what I'm doing, and I realise
he's just out for a sun bake, and I
thought, ok...

97
00:27:24,670 --> 00:27:26,805
So, they're just sitting there,
actually warming up on the road?

98
00:27:26,806 --> 00:27:46,912
To the side, usually in the side of
the road and that's why I think
they've been hit by a car or
something, but no they're happy just
to go for a bit of a munch during the
day, plonk themselves down for a
couple of hours in the sun, get out
go for another munch. So, during
winter they're quite... They're happy
to come out, put it that way.

99
00:27:47,210 --> 00:27:56,890
Far out! And so, have you done much
in the area of rehabilitation of any
of these guys one on one and could
you talk to us about what it's like,
what their personalities are like?

100
00:27:57,640 --> 00:28:23,854
I must admit, I tend to do a lot of
infield stuff, because I'm not
registered to the Wildlife Carer, I
can't get involved with them
directly, but we do have some
wildlife carers around who do get
involved with them and we have two at
the moment actually at a friend's
place one of them is for Bruno and
he's a big boy. And then there's a
younger one which is oddly enough
called Mr Bean.

101
00:28:26,010 --> 00:28:27,010
Because he's the funniest one, is he?

102
00:28:29,500 --> 00:28:31,067
Oddly enough he is named after me.

103
00:28:32,030 --> 00:28:33,030
Gotcha! Gotcha!

104
00:28:33,910 --> 00:28:50,656
I actually rescued him in August from
his dead mum and here was just a
little pinky in the pouch and
basically we managed to cut him out
of the pouch because it's pretty
tight. I think the story might be on
our Facebook page somewhere, anyway.

105
00:28:51,700 --> 00:28:56,130
So, what's the situation there? What
how how did you end up rescuing a
baby?

106
00:28:57,040 --> 00:29:17,128
Oh, okay. So, what happened was on an
August 23, I think it was, it was
about zero degrees, I'm driving to
the train station. There's a body on
the side of the road, a wombat, and I
thought ok, I'll stop and check and I
carry a can of blue spray paint cause
I spray them when I check them to say
it's been checked so, no one else
checks it.

107
00:29:17,470 --> 00:29:29,464
I was going to ask you that too,
because his year down in Canberra we
were driving along and I'm like "what
the... some some arsehole has spray
painted every single one of these
dead animals on the side of the road"
you know, some graffiti artist has
gone.

108
00:29:30,530 --> 00:29:31,530
I'm just tagging.

109
00:29:32,060 --> 00:29:40,420
One of my friends is like no man,
that's someone comes out and checks
every morning to see if there's a new
freshly killed animal and why are
they checking these animals?

110
00:29:40,960 --> 00:30:00,260
And well, if it's a female so, this
one in particular I rolled over and I
thought a female, I can see the
pouch, the pouch is bulging slightly
and it was moving slightly. So, it's
got a live one in it. So, then I
called a friend and she came down and
likely she's a nurse so, she's used
to cutting things.

111
00:30:01,310 --> 00:30:02,557
And she was carrying a scalpel, was
she?

112
00:30:03,970 --> 00:30:30,378
Pretty much, she's got the full kit
in the car and we managed to extract
that one. He was quite chilled by
that stage, so we wrapped him up in a
blanket and then took him straight up
to a wildlife carer in St Andrews
here called Mara and she had
everything ready and she started to
feed him. We initially thought he
might pass away in the first half
hour. It was really touch and go.

113
00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:32,982
Just from hypothermia or?

114
00:30:33,140 --> 00:30:58,440
Exactly from the cold and the lack of
food and that sort of thing. But by
the end of the day she had  him
feeding well, he warm and she has a
little crib with the little head heat
pad in it so, it keeps warm up. It
was remarkable, and now he's...what,
he went from a 300 gram pinky and now
he's about five kilos and he's a
bouncing boy.

115
00:30:59,740 --> 00:31:00,740
Far out, he's bigger than a cat then
now...

116
00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:04,449
Well, they're very solid. So, he's
probably the same size of a cat, but
far more solid.

117
00:31:06,818 --> 00:31:07,856
Like a cat in the shape of a brick,
right?

118
00:31:07,857 --> 00:31:09,740
Exactly. Yeah.

119
00:31:10,550 --> 00:31:25,550
But I've seen and I've heard that
they're actually quite easy to not
necessarily domesticate, but to get
used to humans because I've seen
those videos with people caring for
them and they'll be out in the garden
running around and the wombat is
chasing them around. is that a... Is
that something unique to them? Is
that a behaviour that they do?

120
00:31:26,150 --> 00:31:45,701
Well, they're very smart because both
Bruno and Mr Bean, even though they
are very young, Bruno is a slightly
bigger wombat, but they're both
toilet trained. There... In their
pen, there's a toilet area and after
they've had a drink or their food
they then go into the little box with
the kitty litter if you like and do
what they have to do and then come
back out. I was really impressed,
actually.

121
00:31:54,056 --> 00:32:03,260
The next step would be training and
like those people who have a kitty
litter holder that go on toilets,
right? So, they try to poo in the
toilet.

122
00:32:04,333 --> 00:32:05,333
We're working on it, yeah.

123
00:32:06,821 --> 00:32:09,061
Is it true that they have square poo?

124
00:32:10,997 --> 00:32:11,997
They do.

125
00:32:12,140 --> 00:32:14,491
And why is that the case, more
importantly?

126
00:32:15,220 --> 00:32:20,109
I was afraid you were going to ask me
that. There is a good documentary
about it actually and I can't
remember what it was about.

127
00:32:20,110 --> 00:32:20,971
A full documentary just on that
question?

128
00:32:22,812 --> 00:32:29,175
Yeah I should know these important
things, actually. Unfortunately, I
just treat them from mange.

129
00:32:30,260 --> 00:32:41,052
Far out! Because I remember walking
around again in this in this reserve
in Canberra, and just seeing those
square like cuboid poos everywhere
and being like oh, I guess there's
wombats around here, 'cause nothing
else does that.

130
00:32:42,140 --> 00:32:53,875
But what really impresses me is when
you see a little stump or a log or
something and they manage to poo
right on top of it. I mean, that
really blows me away that.

131
00:32:54,055 --> 00:33:09,560
Far out. So, do you think people who
stop on the side of the road to check
these animals, are they making a big
difference in the grand scheme of
things in other words are a lot of
the animals that die in the road is
that taking a big toll on the actual
population?

132
00:33:10,220 --> 00:33:24,470
Yeah, I'd say there's probably
depending on the zone, I mean, for
example North of Melbourne there are
some big housing developments going
on and that's had a huge impact on
the population of kangaroos, for
example, and probably wombats as
well.

133
00:33:24,550 --> 00:33:28,790
Is it because they die on the roads,
but they're also clearing the land
that they like to eat on?

134
00:33:29,290 --> 00:33:48,863
Yeah. So, predominately it's the
clearing and disturbance, but
secondly it's the roadkill that is a
big issue too. So, it's a big
problem, some areas it might be as
high as you know 30 percent of the
deaths of these animals is through
probably roadkill to be honest.

135
00:33:50,300 --> 00:33:51,300
Far out, no kidding.

136
00:33:51,450 --> 00:34:16,936
Yes, look, depending on how much
cleared land. So, where I live
there's a lot of cleared land around.
So, things like wombats probably will
graze, but there's not much creek
areas to go and hide if you like.
Whereas if you go further up to the
national parks nearby, they're
obviously very dense and they'll have
a much greater density and wombats
and that sort of area basically.

137
00:34:17,449 --> 00:34:42,719
And hence you'll see those signs
everywhere, the yellow signs built
with a wombat on it saying drive
slow. So, what should people do as
well if they see those signs and
they're driving through those sorts
of areas. What should they do in
terms of how they drive and also if
if they were to hit a wombat or see a
wombat on the side of the road that
doesn't have your tag on the side of
it, what advice would you give to
people in that situation?

138
00:34:43,510 --> 00:35:07,080
Look, generally if I'm going to a
location, for example, if I'm driving
up to New South Wales through the
mountains, I will actually load into
my phone a number of wildlife rescue
organizations that might be in that
area. So, if I do something, do see
something, I have got the ability to
contact someone hopefully and maybe
get some assistance or some help.

139
00:35:07,230 --> 00:35:10,603
So, is it just their phone numbers or
applications or something?

140
00:35:10,862 --> 00:35:28,020
Probably their phone numbers. So, in
the case of wombats, for example,
more commonly what I would do if
actually difficult to extract a joey
from a pouch, it's done under
supervision because you need to
actually cut the teat, but make sure
it doesn't suck the teat down.

141
00:35:28,050 --> 00:35:52,782
So, what we often do is we're going
to cut the teat, you put a safety pin
through there, then you cut the teat
and then the safety pin will stop it
from being taken in by the joey, but
also pouches can be quite tight so,
you do have to have a pair of good
scissors to cut the patch open
without cutting the animal, but
instead of doing all that what I'll
often do is actually take the whole
body and stick it in the back of the
car.

142
00:35:53,510 --> 00:36:01,620
That was what I was about to ask, you
just load it into the back of the
car, and be like whatever, like I can
see something moving so, the whole
thing goes into the car. Just hope
you've got a UTE and not a station
wagon.

143
00:36:03,190 --> 00:36:16,861
I'll probably ring up a wildlife
carer nearby and say look, I've come
across a wombat, this has happened a
few times, I'll take the whole body
with the joey in and let them....
It's also better insulated too, if
mum's still warm, it's going to stay
warm. So, that works out well.

144
00:36:17,566 --> 00:36:21,842
And so would you recommend too these
people when they're driving through
these areas to be more vigilant than
usual?

145
00:36:23,810 --> 00:37:04,093
Yes. Yeah and look areas that I find
that wombats and wallabies for
example tend to be more active
usually around creek areas where it's
moist, a creek crossing, were you get
dips in the road that go down to a
creek. It's highly likely we're going
to get a much greater density of
animals in that area, basically. So,
I'm more vigilant too the side of the
road so, I'm always looking alongside
the roads to see what movement there
is, this sort of thing and at night I
just slow down. It's difficult in
some areas, but you know, I'd rather
not hit something and just damaging
an animal it's also damaging your car
and you might be incapacitated.

146
00:37:04,111 --> 00:37:28,080
That's it too, right? If you hit
something like an echidna or a
wombat, unfortunately a lot of
Australian animals aren't really made
to be run over by, so it's not going
to do your car a lot of good so, even
if you don't care about the animals,
it's kind of like care about your own
car as well to slow down. So what
happens, to sort of finish up the
interview, what happens to someone
like Mr Bean? What will happen in his
near future?

147
00:37:28,780 --> 00:37:43,548
Ah, well that's interesting because
Mr Bean has an issue with his teeth
and his teeth aren't... so wombats
have teeth that continue to grow
through their lifetime, they don't
ever wear out, basically.

148
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:49,350
So, they are Australians kind of
rodents, right? Like the equivalent
of like a land Beaver, you know?

149
00:37:49,770 --> 00:38:10,800
Yes, exactly. Their teeth are
designed to keep growing. In the case
of Mr Bean his teeth, or a couple of
his teeth are misaligned and the
trouble is as he gets older, he won't
be able to eat and he will basically,
if we let him back into the wild,
he'll probably starve.

150
00:38:12,030 --> 00:38:20,100
What happens? You need the teeth to
align, right? So that they chisel one
another down to stay sharp so that
they can keep eating if they don't
align the teeth or just keep growing.

151
00:38:20,190 --> 00:38:27,323
Exactly. So, fortunately in about two
week's time there's a vet up near
Canberra. Doctor Ralph Howard, or
Howard Ralph? Sorry, if i get that
wrong.

152
00:38:27,324 --> 00:38:28,324
Two first names.

153
00:38:33,570 --> 00:39:15,338
Yeah, I know, it's really messy,
especially at this time of night. He
is willing to do the surgery to make
the correction so, that's going to
happen in a couple of week's time so,
we shall hopefully see how that goes,
anyway. If it goes well, he'll be
looked after for another year and
then he goes into what they call a
soft release where he goes into a
caged area out here, in the bushy
environment where he'll have a door
attached where he can come and go as
he pleases. So, he'll get used to his
environment and then come back and we
can still feed him and look after him
and then he'll go back out there
during the night. So, that's how they
do it a soft release, anyway.

154
00:39:15,660 --> 00:39:25,563
Does that tend to happen most of the
time where they will just eventually
disappear completely or do they
sometimes say man, this deal is just
too good to give up, this hotel free!

155
00:39:26,370 --> 00:39:49,850
No, wombats are funny. They get to
about the age of three and they just
sort of turn completely and off they
go. That's it. They might come back
on occasion, but they're very.... I
wouldn't say solitary; they just
suddenly change. So, they'll be out
there enjoying the wilderness and
that's about it, really.

156
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:53,516
Suddenly notice the ladies and
they're like yeah no, the free food,
you can keep it.

157
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:55,223
Exactly!

158
00:39:55,224 --> 00:40:06,397
Far out. Well, Nick, thanks so much
for coming on the podcast. How can
people find out more about Mange
Management and I take it you guys
take donations if people want to help
out and they're in a position to?

159
00:40:07,130 --> 00:40:40,765
We take donations. We have a Facebook
page which is Mange Management and we
also have a website. The website is
mostly about treatment and we
encourage people to try and treat
wombats themselves, either using the
pole and scoop that I mentioned or a
burrow flat which is a device that
sits over a burrow and can dose the
animals as well. So, we encourage
individuals to do it, mainly because
there just aren't enough of us to do
it. So, even if people engage so,
either process have a look and see
what you think, anyway.

160
00:40:41,730 --> 00:40:55,560
So, what happens there? If you want
people to help out what do they need
to do in order to say they're living
in a location where they know wombats
are found locally and they find out
there's mange on some of them, what
do they need to do in order to get a
kit or get some of the gear to help
out?

161
00:40:55,980 --> 00:41:17,820
We've got about 30 pickup points
around Victoria and you can go and
pick up a kit which is free and it's
got instructions, it's got all the
gear in it to at least get treatment
going and then that's usually the
starting point anyway and then I can
converse with this, ring us, email us
whatever and we can give them
assistance anyway.

162
00:41:18,370 --> 00:41:21,330
Brilliant! Thanks so much for coming
on the podcast, Nick! Really
appreciate it.

163
00:41:22,350 --> 00:41:22,707
Ok, Thanks, Pete.