Numbat is a banded anteater from the town of Cherry Tree Pool in Western Australia. Born beside a billabong to a family of farmers, Numbat began playing music at the age of two. His musical style was shaped by countless hours jamming with aboriginal children and local indigenous animals such as quokka, wallabies, and rufous treecreepers. Numbat’s pursuit of music took him from Cherry Tree Pool to Sydney, on the Eastern Coast of Australia, and then to Ranomafana, where The Scheming Lemurs formed. Numbat plays a Gibson Les Paul electric and a Martin 000 acoustic. He also plays the mandolin.
Numbat was recently the subject of a feature article in Ranoma-flora-and-fauna Magazine. We think you will find this article to be a revealing look into the life of the spunky and rambunctious marsupial.
While it is not uncommon to have Australians visit Ranomafana, most of these visitors are of the human variety. They are usually 18 year olds on their “gap year” or folks on walkabout. However, Australian animals are rarely seen in the park. That makes Numbat, a banded anteater from Western Australia, rather unique.
Numbat gets his name from being a numbat. “Numbat” is the Australian name for what would more commonly be called a banded anteater.
Numbat is a singer and guitar player for international music sensation The Scheming Lemurs. Ranomafana regulars have likely seen him devouring banana splits in The Vanilla Bean Café or burrowed in a hollow log for an after-lunch nap somewhere in the park. But since many locals have not yet had a chance to get to know Numbat, we present a profile on the fun-loving fellow:
Numbat comes from the rural south-west of Australia. Though he lacks the refinement and culture of some of his city-dwelling countrymen, Numbat more than makes up for this with his small town charm. According to Silky, “Numbat is very friendly. He talks to everyone, even if they don’t want to talk to him. And he usually won’t stop talking until the person just walks away!”
Numbat is particularly handy. The strap on Mister Lemur’s bass guitar broke right before they were supposed to go on stage. Silky started freaking out, but Numbat just took off one of his own boots, tied the shoelace of the boot to an extra guitar string and some dental floss, wrapped the whole thing in electrical tape, and made a makeshift strap right on the spot. (If you were wondering where he got the floss, Silky keeps dental floss with him at all times, we are told). Rather than delay the concert, Numbat then proceeded to play the entire concert wearing only one boot. “It just goes to show you what a good friend he can be… when he’s not playing pranks on you…” Mister Lemur added.
Ah, right – the pranks. Part mischievous little brother, part crazy-country-cousin, Numbat is all shenanigans on tour. Band members routinely check their shoes before getting dressed to make sure Numbat has not slipped a slug inside or lined the sole with itching powder. When Mister Lemur is distracted, Numbat is known to jump on his back and not let go while yelling, “It’s a ringtail rodeo!” as Mister Lemur tries unsuccessfully to shake him off his back.
Numbat’s favorite prank, however, is to hide Silky’s signature Silky Sunglasses. This is hard to do, since Silky basically wears those glasses all the time unless he is sleeping or bathing. Apparently this causes Silky to completely freak out. It has caused concerts to start late and days to pass where Silky was too mad to talk to Numbat.
Though he will nap elsewhere, Numbat’s numbat tendencies come out when he bunks down for the night. He takes pillows and blankets and makes a burrow. Then he squeezes into the burrow head first with his backside closing off the entrance to the burrow. This comes from Numbat’s days as a wild numbat. In “the bush,” banded anteaters typically sleep in a narrow shaft that is about twice as long as their bodies. A numbat will then sleep in the shaft so that his thick “rump” will block the entrance to the burrow, preventing any predators from getting to them. So when his band-mates say Numbat has “thick skin”, he really does. At least, on his backside.
Those who know Numbat well say his biggest weakness is his short attention span. He is very easily distracted and he doesn’t want to miss a good time to focus on practice. His lack of social graces can also be a problem and he has cause a number of incidents by not being proper and observing local customs while on tour.
Like many anteaters, his favorite food is ants. He has a particular fondness for ant pies and termite pies. Those are usually only found in restaurants in “Commonwealth Countries” Australia, England, Canada and South Africa, and he will eat virtually nothing else when traveling in those countries.
Interestingly, Numbat does not have a strong Australian accent, and you can’t hear it at all when he sings. His second language is Spanish, which he speaks almost fluently. We asked Numbat to tell us about his childhood. Het was born to a family of farmers and he likes to be close to the land, but found farming boring. Music was much more interesting. He had to get out and see the world. That took him to Australia’s largest city (Sydney), and then eventually to Ranomafana.
Though we couldn’t get Numbat in a candid, reflective mood, we did get one of his band mates to say of him that “Numbat does not think he’s all that smart. Otherwise, he has a lot of confidence and really does not fear much. He deals with conflict and change like a hammer deals with a nail”.
A source close to the band described Numbat’s relationship with his band members as follows: He think’s Mister Lemur is kind of a nerd at times. He thinks Jenny is fun and likes her energy, but he gets bored when she wants to do cultural things. Numbat likes Silky because he is cool and because the girls like Silky (and Numbat likes the girls!), but he also can’t help himself from playing jokes on Silky because he (Numbat) thinks it is hilarious when Silky freaks out. The band members generally think he is fun and they are impressed with his talent, but some don’t like his unreliable nature. It is an interesting group dynamic.
We asked Numbat what motivates him and why he does what he does. Many musicians provide long answers about pursuing artistic passions and changing the world. Numbat simply looked at us like we were crazy and said, “What could be more fun than being a rock star?”
We hope you have had as much fun getting to know a little more about Ranomafana’s newest resident rock star as we have!