An echidna, an animal not often seen taking a dip, has been found swimming in Tasmania not long after fishermen hauled a wombat out of a different lake on the island with a net.
Recreational fisherman Nobby Clark said he spotted an echidna in Lake Echo swimming about 150m from shore – and heading further out.
Clark had been fly-fishing for about two hours when he saw the echidna swimming towards him. He told the ABC he’d mistaken it for another monotreme at first.
“I thought it was a platypus heading towards me but it turned out to be an echidna.
“His head would go under water and then his little periscope would come up for a moment and have a breath and head out a few more paddles. He was swimming pretty hard; I think he was trying to figure out how he was going to get home.
“The direction he was heading was certainly not a good option for him.”
Clark returned the echidna to shore, placing it on a warm log, where he said the “quite exhausted” animal sat for at least half an hour.
He told the ABC it was an example of the “absolutely wonderful things” one can experience in “the great outdoors of Tasmania”.
According to the ABC, it is not unknown for echidnas to swim, though scientists have “yet to delve into [their] swimming endurance capabilities”.
An echidna was reportedly spotted swimming last month at Friendly Beaches on the east coast of Tasmania, and last year, another was found 2km from shore in Darwin Harbour.
The fisherman who recently rescued the wombat said he came across the “pretty well distressed” marsupial out from Wood Lake, about 250m offshore.
Bob Wilton and his stepson Craig used a net to rescue the struggling animal.
“He was struggling and that and I said to Craig, ‘I think we better help this poor guy out’,” Wilton told the ABC. “I picked him up by the fur and lifted him up into the boat and he just sort of sat on the floor. I think he was glad to get his feet on the floor of the boat.”
Scott Carver, a lecturer in wildlife ecology at the University of Tasmania, said it was “very unusual” for a wombat to be caught so far from shore.
“I think that’s why it’s gained so much attention. I think it probably got lost or disoriented and ended up swimming a long way, and was probably in serious danger when the fisherman reached it.”
Though wombats did not seek out water, they were known to swim occasionally, “usually to cross a creek or small stream”.
“They do engage in the equivalent of doggy paddle, or wombat paddle, if you’d like to call it that,” he said.
Though wombats were his area of expertise, he said it was “not very common” for echidnas to swim either.
