Talk:Numbat

Foxes

"The deliberate release of the European Red Fox in the 19th century, however, wiped out the entire Numbat populations in Victoria, NSW, South Australia, and the Northern Territory, and..."

So do these foxes directly hunt and eat Numbats ? Or do Numbats starve when these foxes grab all the resources first ?

Answer: The red fox eats the numbats. It is believed that numbats are most vulnerable to foxes in habitats where there aren't many logs for them to hide in (ie deserts). The foxes are able to dig them out of burrows but it's harder for them to get to numbats that can shelter in logs.

This species is apparently going to be trial released in the Arid Recovery reserve in Roxby Downs, sometime this year (2005). --SydBoy 11:14, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Foxes eat numbats.61.230.88.35 11:07, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

It eats nuts. 64.250.194.162 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 14:03, 1 April 2009 (UTC).

Capitalization

In normal English usage, mammal names such as dog, cat, elephant, tiger and panda are not capitalized. When part of the name comes from a proper noun, that part is capitalized, like Asian elephant, Siberian tiger, English terrier. Does anyone have an objection to decapitalizing "numbat"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wakablogger2 (talk • contribs) 06:10, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Wombat disamb

Having seen this kicked in and out of the header recently... I would actually favour including the "Not to be confused with Wombat" note. I personally had a hard time distinguising the buggers by name in my callow youth. Can't hurt, might help and seems uncontroversial. --Elmidae (talk · contribs) 08:54, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

To be oblique, because I prefer that notion is not the first thing announced about the species, is there some evidence that these names are confused? cygnis insignis 09:55, 9 January 2019 (UTC)

reverts

I can be reverted with edit summaries, but expected to raise it on the talk if I want to change the article, eh? … I am reverted without edit summaries, then tendentiously noted as having added information without a citation. The citation is in the article … are you guys new here? Well, no, just lazy and privileged it seems, take a step back and discuss this. And can I have a specific line in WP:AT, "Although official, scientific, birth, original, or trademarked names are often used for article titles, the term or name most typically used in reliable sources is generally preferred.", that can mean something to a gut feeling interpretation, "use English [as I see it]" or it can be applied with the RS. cygnis insignis 14:01, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

• questions:

• , what does "I'm invoking millions of redirects and hundreds of years of WP:PRECISION in our sources" even mean when you reverted me? Please familiarise yourself with wp:lead's section on organisms. Quote When a common (vernacular) name is used as the article title, the boldfaced common name is followed by the italic un-boldfaced scientific name in round parentheses in the opening sentence of the lead.
• More broadly, what does The orthography and pronunciation of the Nyungar name is regularised, following a survey of published sources and contemporary consultation that resulted in the name noombat, pronounced noom'bat. mean? Resulted in noombat being the Nyungar name? If so, shouldn't it be indicated in the lead as being the non-English root of the English word? Sabine's Sunbird talk 16:45, 10 January 2019 (UTC)
• Oh, and I'm unclear what your appeal to WP:AT is in aid of. The species is unquestionably typically referred to as the numbat in almost every source. Sabine's Sunbird talk 17:30, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

Firstly, I blended discussion of Sunbird's reverts with those less thoughtful, sincere apologies are extended to that respected contributor. I have opened a discussion on that addition to WP:Lead, and cannot claim I was unaware of it. I was myself being tendentious, making a point, in adding italic to the title and emboldened name. The phrasing about Abbott's research and recommendations is perhaps awkward, but I think more so if one has a head-canon on what does and does not qualify as English. A similar entry occurs at Purpureicephalus spurius, and the potted history of that proposed (and accepted, in one sense) name that would have likely supplanted red-capped parrot if the research had been done previously. There is a link to the paper in that article on what Abbott did on bird names, and the introduction goes into great details about methods and materials. What happened, in southwest Australia, is that committees were formed to create names that suppressed the extant names that were entering the language through their common use. This was very deliberate, like the IOC does for the most reactionary group of naturalists of today, bird watchers (no offense). The results and publications of these choices were immediately contentious, and those coining names like, I'm guessing, banded anteater were met with indignation from someone who had published another satisfactorily non-indigenous name, marsupial hedgehog or whatever; no one was regularising the orthography and pronunciation of existing names despite many authors since Gould (birds, mammals) noting the names. cygnis insignis 04:59, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

Sources

• Finlayson, H.H. (1958). "On Central Australian mammals (with notice of related species from adjacent tracts). Part III. The Potoroinae". Records of the South Australian Museum. 13: 235–302.
• Finlayson, H.H. (1961). "On central Australian mammals. Part IV-The distribution and status of central Australian species". Records of the South Australian Museum. 14: 141–191.

Hedley's surveys and informants, frequently cited as a primary source. ~ cygnis insignis 16:38, 15 August 2019 (UTC)