ONE “MONSTER” LESS.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXII, Issue 72, 5 March 1934, Page 1

ONE “MONSTER” LESS.

THE GIPPSLAND MYSTERY ANIMAL. What is believed to be Gippsland’s * “mystery animal” has been captured, c says a Melbourne newspaper. An ac- ’ count of the animal was published ‘ recently. ; . The creature, it has been disclosed, j is not a lion, a dingo, a panther - , nor , ( the village postman, as was variously suggested. It is not as large as a ' calf, nor is it 3ft. high and 6ft. long, 1 as has been described, but it is, as some witnesses of its periodical ap- ’ pearances have said, fawn-colored, with a large rather cat-like head and ' a body like that of a great over- ■ grown dog or dingo. It has a peculiar whine. . The “mystery” animal is a giant wombat, with an unorthodox wombat gait, leaving footprints unlike those ' of most of its family and very like : those found in the bush which gave ■ birth to the mystery. The captor was Constable Glenroy Figgins, of tiie wireless patrol, -who has spent much of his life in the bush, and a bush companion. The wombat has been lodged next to the white rabbits at the Melbourne Zoo, where, loosed from the heavy ropes necessary to hold him, he spent the first few moments in a desperate attempt to burrow through the iron fence. The animal is equal to the largest the curator of the zoo, Mr Wilkie, has seen. It is about 3ft. long, with a head at least a foot in length from the tip of its nose to the base - , behind the short, pig-like ears. It has a low, whining growl and the largest feet for a wombat that Mr Wilkie or the constable, who has seen many, have ever come across. Instead of leaving claw-marks and the mark of only a portion of its feet, this wombat places its feet firmly upon- the ground, giving an impression, almost as large as a hand, of the whole of its foot. It was so fierce and perturbed at its capture that a clear footprint could not be obtained for comparison. It did not yield to capture without a struggle. “We were on a shooting expedition in the hills near Drouin when we caught him,” said Constable Figgins. “He fought fiercely and at one stage held down by the shoulder one of the two Alsatian dogs we had with us before he rolled into a waterhole, where he was lassoed. .He charged each of ns in the process, but missed us.” Constable Figgins said that it would be quite possible for the wombat, in the darkness, to be mistaken for a larger animal such as had been reported. Perched on a ridge, or halfhidden by undergrowth, it could give all sorts of impressions to one seeing it by night.