Wombats are the bulldozers of the bush — sturdy, powerfully built digging machines with a famously cute face and one of the strangest toilet habits in nature: cube-shaped droppings. This guide covers everything from their digging feats and backward-facing pouches to the fight for survival of the rarest large marsupial on the continent. To meet their closest relative, see our koala facts guide.
What Is a Wombat?
A wombat is a stout, burrowing marsupial — a mammal that carries its young in a pocket — weighing up to about 40 kilograms, making it one of the largest burrowing mammals in the world. Wombats are marsupials whose nearest cousin lounges in the treetops, and like those sleepy relatives they are true natives, grazing native grasses at night. With short powerful legs, strong claws, small ears and a rear protected by a tough cartilage plate, it is built entirely for one thing: digging.
The Wombat Family
There are three species of wombat:
- Bare-nosed wombat (also called the common wombat) — widespread across south-eastern Australia and Tasmania
- Southern hairy-nosed wombat — the arid-country specialist of South Australia
- Northern hairy-nosed wombat — one of the rarest large animals on Earth, now found only in a tiny pocket of Queensland
Why Do They Poo Cubes?
The wombat’s most famous trick: its droppings come out as neat little cubes. Researchers finally cracked the mystery in 2018 — the last section of the wombat’s intestine is unevenly stretchy, drying each one into a cube before it leaves the body. Each animal can pass 80–100 of these markers a night, using them to scent-mark their territory on logs and rocks, where the cubed-shaped edges stop the scat from rolling away. It is one of nature’s oddest engineering feats, and a source of endless fascination.
Wombat Burrows and Warrens
Wombat burrows are serious construction. A single wombat may dig several entrances within its home range, and wombat warrens can run 20 metres long and several metres deep with multiple chambers. The constant burrowing habits keep the tunnels comfortable: cool in summer, warm in winter, and they protect them from predators and fire — they have been seen emerging unscathed after bushfires swept overhead. Warren doorways often sit near creeks and gullies where the soil is soft, and many animals shelter in these underground homes, making them the accidental landlords of the bush. One famous wombat warren in Victoria is thought to have been used by generations for over a century.
A Design Masterstroke
Here is the masterstroke: the wombat’s pouch opens backwards. While a kangaroo’s version opens toward the head, the wombat’s opens toward the tail, so that a digging mother does not fling soil over her baby. Wombats usually raise one young at a time; the wombat joeys stay safely tucked away for months while mum digs, then ride along as they grow.
What Do Wombats Eat?
Wombats are herbivores, feeding mainly on sedges, roots and the occasional shrub. Their metabolism is famously slow — digestion can take up to two weeks — which squeezes maximum nutrition from low-quality food and helps them survive food shortages in drought. It also explains those famously dry little parcels.
Teeth That Never Stop Growing
Like all grazing animals, they wear their teeth down on gritty tucker. Their front teeth never stop growing to make up for it — the incisor pair keeps lengthening for its whole life. The tough teeth and strong jaw also let them bite through roots and even tin cans when the mood takes them.
Wombat Habitat: Where Do They Live?
Wombats live in the cooler, wetter south-east of the continent — New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania — plus small arid-zone pockets further west, where the southern hairy-nosed species rules the drylands. They prefer slopes with good soil near feeding areas, and one den may connect to a network of tunnels within their home range. Farmers have long had a love-hate relationship with their earthworks — they dig under fences or warren under a paddock — but most colonies and landholders now coexist.
Are Wombats Endangered?
Two of them are secure, but the northern hairy-nosed wombat nearly vanished: by the 1980s only a few dozen survived. Intensive conservation — predator fencing, land management and a second breeding colony — has slowly lifted their conservation status, though the population is still tiny. The biggest threats are mange mites, road strike and competition for food.
How Do Wombats Defend Themselves?
The wombats’ best defence is their reinforced rear. If a dingo or fox pursues one down a tunnel, they crush the attacker against the roof with their hard plate, or simply block the entrance with their armoured backside to hide from predators. They can also run surprisingly fast — up to 40 km/h over short stretches.
How Long Do Wombats Live?
In the wild, most live 5–15 years, but the oldest recorded wombat in captivity reached 34 — a grizzled veteran named Wain, who lived long enough to become a local celebrity. Slow metabolism seems to pay off in longevity.
What Is a Gathering Called?
Mostly they are solitary animals, each with several dens within their home ranges — but a group of wombats is sometimes called a wisdom, and some research suggests wombats using the same burrow share warrens more often than once thought.
Can Wombats Be Pets?
No — they are protected Australian natives, and their tunnelling would demolish any home anyway. Wildlife carers do hand-raise orphaned young, and describe them as affectionate, stubborn and unstoppable.
Why Are Wombat Warrens Important?
They shelter dozens of other species — bettongs, skinks, penguins in coastal dens, even echidnas. Losing them from a landscape means losing homes for a whole community.
What Is the Oldest Wombat Fossil?
Wombat ancestors roamed the continent millions of years ago, and a giant plant-eating diprotodon — the largest one that ever lived — was essentially a wombat the size of a rhinoceros. Modern ones are its pocket-sized descendants.
References and Sources
- WWF wombat fact file: wwf.org.au
- Wildlife Victoria wombat guide: wildlife.vic.gov.au