The Children's Theatre Ed Pack (2007)

Part Five

Snow Fairy

·        Related to other fairies, but are much lighter and can dart around more quickly.

·        Often found wearing pale colours. Usually prefer white or pale pink/blue.

·        Snow Fairies can live for hundreds of years.

·        Their favourite foods are strawberry slushies, ice-creams, icy-poles and anything else that is sweet and cold.

·        They like to play games and tricks, and can often be found having snowball fights.

Snowman[1]

·        Man-made sculpture made of snow

·        Usually constructed by children, but sometimes adults will participate

·        Are considered a symbol of Christmas and winter for many people

·        Usually constructed of 2-3 balls of snow layered on top of one another

·        Once the snowman is constructed it is common to then dress the snowman with rocks, sticks, vegetables and even clothing

Tasmanian Wolf/Thylacine[2]

·        Extinct due to dingo and human intrusion, and introduced diseases

·        The last known Thylacine died in captivity in 1936

·        Nocturnal animals

·        Used as a cultural symbol of Tasmania, e.g. is featured on the coat of arms, currency, official logos and vehicle license plates.

·        September 7 is National Thylacine Day

·        Communicates by growling, hissing, ‘yawns’, cough-like barking, long whines

FAMILY

·        Scientific name – Thylacinus cynocephalus

·        Also known as the Tasmanian wolf or tiger

·        Related to the Tasmanian devil

·        Mammals and also marsupials

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

·        similar to a small dog

·        dog-like pouched mammal

·        Length – 100-180cm

·        Tail – 50-65cm

·        Weight – 6-12kg

·        Colour – Yellow-brown coat with dark stripes across its back, rump, and base of tail

·        Very wide jaws which could open up to 120 degrees

HABITAT

·        Australian mainland and Tasmania (about 100 years ago)

·        Forests, wetlands, grasslands and woodlands

DIET                       

·        Kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, birds and small animals.

Wombat[3]

·        Wombats are mammals, as they feed their young on milk. They are warm-blooded animals, like most marsupials

·        The term Marsupials is pronounced ‘mar-soup-e-als’

·        Wombats are known as marsupials as their young develop ‘inside their mother then finish outside her body, usually in her pouch’

·        Wombats have two front teeth in their lower jaw, just like koalas, possums and kangaroos

·        They differ from other marsupials such as quolls and bandicoots, who have six front teeth

·        Wombats have two types of teeth, including incisors and molars

·        A wombats teeth keep growing throughout its life because they are worn down by the tough food they consume in their diet

·        ‘A wombat’s teeth don’t have roots. This means they often fall out after a wombat dies’

·        There are three types of small wombats, including the Common Wombat, the Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat, and the Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat

·        ‘Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats have softer fur than Common Wombats’

·        Northern Hairy-nosed Wombats are the largest of the three, and the rarest as well

·        ‘The Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat is found in drier parts of Australia. The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat is found only in one place in Queensland’

THE COMMON WOMBAT

·        The best known variety of wombat is the Common Wombat. They are only found in Australia

·        They are usually found in forest areas, and can live near the coast or the snow

·        The Common Wombat lives in ‘Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales’

·        Like all mammals, the Common Wombats are warm-blooded creatures

·        A Common Wombat weighs between about 22 and 39 kilograms and can grow between 90 and 115 centimetres long. Their tails are very short and are normally hidden by fur

·        ‘Common Wombats are among the largest burrowing animals in the world’

·        The Common Wombat can dig three different types of burrows. Minor burrows are only about one metre long, medium burrows are up to five metres long, and major burrows may be more than 20 metres long.

·        A Common Wombats paws need to have strong sharp claws for burrowing holes. They have five toes on their front paw with five long claws, and five toes on the back  with four long claws (the second and third claws are connected)

 Wombat tracks:

Source:  Macmillan Education Australia

·        The Common Wombat can ‘also use their front paws to hold their food’

·        Grooming is a normal activity for Common Wombats before feeding

·        These wombats eat grass and tougher ‘grass-like plants called sedges’

·        ‘Wombats have an extraordinarily slow matabolism, taking around 14 days to complete digestion, and generally move slowly’ [4]

·        Common Wombats are nocturnal, as they sleep all day in their burrows. ‘This means that they are mostly active at night’. They sleep during the daytime, especially during the summer months.

·        ‘As it sleeps, a wombat often grinds its teeth, snores, yarns and scratches’

·        The wombats droppings are referred to as scats, and the Common Wombat’s scats look like little boxes

·        ‘Common Wombats may also use a tree near a main burrow to scratch on. This is called a rubbing post’

·        A natural enemy of the Common Wombat is the dingo. Before European settlement, Thylacines (Tasmanian Tigers) would have hunted them as well

BREEDING CYCLE

·        The young wombat only partly develops inside the mother, and ‘is born in an undeveloped state, then crawls into its mother’s pouch and feeds on her milk to finish developing. This happens in the Spring.

·        A Common Wombat is born three weeks after mating. Wombats are about 15 millimetres long, weigh about half a gram, and are born blind, and hairless

·        After being born, they crawl into their mother’s pouch and the young feed on one of two teats inside

·        At six months, the Common Wombat has fully opened eyes and fur, and their first teeth are out. They are normally just old enough to poke out its head out of their mother’s pouch, and nibble on grass

·        At ten months they spend more time outside of their mother’s pouch.  They still stay close to their mother, communicating with a ‘huh huh’ sound if they become lost

·        In captivity, Common Wombats can live up to 20 years or more, as opposed to the wild when an expected life span is about 15 years

WOMBATS IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

·        Wombat Stew by Marcia K. Vaughan

·        Wombat to the Rescue by Gary Crew

·        Little Wombat by Chris Mansell