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These Wombat-Rescuing Fishermen Are Our New Heroes

We're sure the wombat appreciates them, too.
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By 

Deputy Editor, Trends, HuffPost

This is the cutest catch-and-release we’ve ever seen.

Bob Wilton and Craig Wilson were fishing on a lake in Central Tasmania Friday night when they spotted a big, brown, furry creature in the water.

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Craig Wilson / The Advocate

"As we were moving I noticed what looked like a platypus from a distance in the lake,” Wilton told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

But the creature was no platypus.

As the two men got closer, they realized the animal was a wombat, around 250 yards from shore and “pretty well-distressed,” Wilton said.

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Craig Wilson / The Advocate

Though wombats do have the ability to swim, the fishermen said this one was struggling so far out in the choppy water.

"If we weren't there in the lake he would have drowned for sure, the way the wind was blowing, he would not have been able to make it back to shore," Wilson told The Advocate.

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Craig Wilson / The Advocate

The two heroes lowered a net and plucked the marsupial from the water, letting him walk around on the boat. Once they got back to shore they released him and he “went on his merry way and strolled back into the bush.”

Contact the author at Hilary.Hanson@huffingtonpost.com

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Cradle Mountain Lake, St. Clair National Park, Tasmania, Australia (credit:Bob Stefko via Getty Images)
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Kangaroo and Wombat warning road signs, Victoria, Australia (credit:Visuals Unlimited, Inc./Dave Watts via Getty Images)
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A large wombat grazing on some green grass at Wilsons Promontory National Park, South Gippsland, Victoria, Australia. (credit:Stoneography via Getty Images)
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Common Wombat Australia Zoo (credit:Darrell Gulin via Getty Images)
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Wombat, vombatus ursinus, Tasmania, Australia (credit:TED MEAD via Getty Images)
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wombat (credit:Juergen & Christine Sohns via Getty Images)
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Wombat, Narawntapu National Park (credit:Andrew Bain via Getty Images)
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Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia, Australasia (credit:Holger Leue via Getty Images)
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Maria Island National Park, Maria Island, Tasmania, Australia, Australasia (credit:Andrew Bain via Getty Images)

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