Numbats in the wild doing better than expected
February 9, 2024 12:49 AM   Subscribe

Numbats (small insectivorous marsupial that eats termites) in the wild doing better than expected despite prescribed burn with dire consequences. There was once thought to be fewer than 1000 numbats left in the wild, but a new study in southern Western Australia suggests that number is far greater. A video of numbats.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (20 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Yay, numbats doing better!
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:06 AM on February 9 [3 favorites]


Sustainability is something we should all be thinking more about, and demanding that environmental reporting funding at the ABC never decrease in real terms.

Otherwise this posting schedule will become completely untenable.
posted by Audreynachrome at 3:07 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]


Aw heck—video not available in my country. Was keen to view numbats in action.
posted by kinnakeet at 4:06 AM on February 9




I feel like Australia is just making up Pokémon names at this point. Wombat, numbat, nabarlek, woylie, quokka …I mean, come on.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:52 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]


Numbats are the numbest!
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:24 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]


leotrotsky, You forgot boodie.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 6:29 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]


Into the tree, you and me
All the years and no one heard
Eat termites in spring, it's a treacherous thing
"You miss us?" hissed the numbats!
posted by credulous at 6:52 AM on February 9 [3 favorites]


cutecutecute
posted by Glinn at 7:04 AM on February 9


Wombat, numbat, nabarlek, woylie, quokka …I mean, come on.

This is basically saying hurf durf indigenous Australians talk funny. Please don’t do that.
posted by zamboni at 7:12 AM on February 9 [7 favorites]


Their little masks! I am dead.
posted by The Bellman at 7:21 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]


Numbats are doin' it for themselves
posted by credulous at 8:20 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]


badger squirrel!
posted by supermedusa at 8:33 AM on February 9 [2 favorites]


numbats
doodloo doo doo doo
numbats

numbat content is best content
posted by winesong at 8:47 AM on February 9 [1 favorite]


The only reason I know about numbats is my kid's favorite letter was N and I had to memorize a bunch of N animals, which are surprisingly rare.
posted by carolr at 9:59 AM on February 9


does the suffix -bat mean something in Noongar/Nyungar and Dharug?

Or is the westernization a corruption of the sound where westerners assign a common ending to similar-sounding words?

Or is it just a coincidence?
posted by lalochezia at 10:18 AM on February 9


Noongar and Dharug are both classified as Pama-Nungan, but Dharug is Yuin-Kuric while Noongar is Nyungic, and were widely separated, geographically speaking.

Early attempts to transcribe numbat and wioo:
Gilbert MS: Noam-bat (York districts), Wai-hoo (KGS). MS2 has the variant: Noom-bat (York and Toodyay districts)
Gilbert in Gould: Noam-bat (York and Toodyay districts), Wai-haw (KGS)
Gilbert in Wagstaffe & Rutherford: Wombat
Shortridge: Numbat
Moore: Numbat (York)
Millett: Noombat
Hassell, E.: weeoo
Haddleton: numbat
Hassell, E.A.: Weeou, Wee-u
Leake: Numbat
Bates: Nombat (Jerramungup), Noombat (Bridgetown MD, East of Katanning, Kojonup), Nyoombot (Gingin), Weeoo (Kojonup, Albany MD, Korrlup), Wi-u (East of Katanning)
Early attempts to transcribe wombat from various dialects:
Price: whom-Batt
Hunter: wombach
Bass: Wom-bat
Collins: Wom-bat/Womback
Flinders: Whombat, Womat
Good: Wumot
Freycinet: Wombat
Breton: Hombac
Ronsard: Humbac
Baudin: Umbat
Peron: Ombatte
posted by zamboni at 11:01 AM on February 9 [6 favorites]


That's cool. do either of these languages have a suffix -bat that means anything or is it just coincidence?
posted by lalochezia at 11:25 AM on February 9


I don't know enough about them to say - sorry!
posted by zamboni at 12:11 PM on February 9 [1 favorite]


a population of just under 2,000 in the Upper Warren region alone.

That's Numbatwang!
posted by Paul Slade at 4:42 AM on February 10


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