Can a wombat really outrun Usain Bolt?
We all love a mystery, so read on to find out where this “fact” about the sturdy marsupial originated and whether it’s true.
It’s thanks to zoologists that we know why wombats excrete square-shaped poo.
For a long time, it was thought the native Australian animals had square anuses. But that’s not the case. Wombat poo is square because of muscle contractions in wombat intestines.
Evolutionists say this produces poos that can then be stacked into mini towers, enabling their pong to spread in the wind and better ward off other wombats.
That’s one mystery solved, but a bigger one remains: can a wombat really outrun world champion sprinter Usain Bolt?
The apparent speed of the marsupial is a long-held scientific “fact” that has been published and republished for the past 50 years.
Bolt’s world record 100-metre run was completed in 9.58 seconds at an average speed of 37.58 kilometres per hour.
And while Bolt briefly hit just under 44 kph in his best run, a wombat, so we’ve been told, could outpace the Jamaican great and maintain 40 kph over the same distance for nine seconds.
But where did this unlikely fact come from?
Thanks to an ABC Science investigation, it seems we can’t be certain about its origins, but we can be a little better informed about its veracity.
One of the first sources to make the claim was the 1984 edition of zoologist Robert Strahan’s Complete Book of Australian Mammals, which credited it to Flinders University ecology and palaeontology Professor Rod Wells.
Professor Wells told the ABC it didn’t come directly from him but may have stemmed from a 1972 documentary on hairy-nosed wombats for which he had provided technical advice.
The doco claims wombats “retreat to their warren when they sense danger and quickly at that, their short legs can carry them at more than 25 miles an hour”.
Professor Wells said the figure (which is the equivalent of just over 40 kph) might have come about because of a miscommunication with Steen about how fast researchers had driven cars to try to catch wombats for study.
“I suspect the pursuit vehicle, not the wombat, probably accelerated to 25 mph.
“Watch the film and make your own judgement. Until someone else steps forward I plead guilty to perpetuating this myth.”
You can watch that film and other evidence of surprisingly speedy and dexterous wombats here.
Back in the 1970s, scientists caught wombats by chasing them in a car, followed by a foot chase with a comically oversized butterfly net.
These days there are more refined techniques, such as DNA testing, for finding out biological data.
Scientists have recently been quoted as saying 20 kph is a realistic top speed for a wombat speed.
If you think that solves the mystery, and we can all sleep more easily at night, wait, because there’s more ...
The ABC tracked down one more wombat expert – a South Australian wildlife biologist, David Taggart, who is on record stating that the southern hairy-nosed species can run at 40 kph.
He’s sticking to his guns, telling the ABC: “I can confirm that I have clocked this species running at just over 40 kph, although they can't maintain that for long.
“If we're running after them, after about 150metres, they’ll lock up and get tired.”
Dr Taggart said a wombat’s speed was due to its muscled physique.
“[They] can gallop like a dog or a horse when they have a full head of steam up and can turn on a two-cent piece.
“There is no way in hell anyone could keep up with them when they really take off.”
Asked who he would back in a race between man and marsupial, Dr Taggart answered without hesitation: “Usain Bolt has nothing on a hairy-nosed wombat."
So … it looks like it’s up to you, dear reader citizen scientists, to clock the next wombat you see and settle the debate once and for all.
Related reading: ABC, Annual Review of Animal Biosciences
