Imagine the surprise on the faces of the people at the Launceston City Council in Tasmania, Australia when they stumbled across a furry critter while viewing video from a stormwater pipe survey recently. The shy little squatter was discovered by engineering development officer Sonia Smith.
Ms Smith said that one of the tasks council asked developers to undertake when building a new subdivision is to ensure all their stormwater pipes were working. "They do that by conducting a remote video camera survey, and they then send the videos into us," Ms Smith said. "The equipment they use is basically a remote controlled camera, driven by a joystick.
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"Sometimes in these videos you see the odd rat or spider, but this is the first time I've seen a wombat.'' Ms Smith said the wombat found his or her way into the pipe because it was open at one end. "It's a 300mm pipe, which is the smallest we use, but it appears that it might be a perfect size for a wombat burrow," she said. Ms Smith said the wombat will be respectfully nudged on to a new burrow and access to the pipe will be blocked.
