Wombats belong to the Vombatidae family, and there are three living species all found in
Australia’s forests and grasslands.The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), who is also called
the coarse-haired wombat or the naked-nosed wombat, is native to the South-eastern coastal
areas of Australia.
The southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons) is native to the central-southern
coastal areas of Australia.
The northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii) is found wildly only in the Epping
Forest National Park and the Richard Underwood Nature Refuge because they are so critically
endangered with less than 300 individuals living in the wild.
Wombats are marsupials just like the opossums we discussed a few episodes back, and they’re
most closely related to koalas.
As far as marsupials go, they’re unique.
Wombats have the largest brains of all the marsupials, and they also have rear-facing
pouches.
Where kangaroos have pouch opening that points toward their head, the wombat’s points toward
their hiney.
A likely reason for this anatomical difference is related to how they live.
Wombats are burrowers and spend most of their days sleeping underground in large, well-constructed
burrows - called warrens.
Because they dig these burrows out themselves, females have to make sure their pouch doesn’t
get filled with dirt, so rear-facing pouches are a must!
Their burrows, of which there may be multiple in a wombat territory, are made up of many
tunnels and sleeping nests in which wombats will spend a vast majority of their time.
Of course, don’t put it past them to soak up some sun if they have the opportunity.
The temperature inside a wombat burrow is usually fairly consistent and humid.
The moist air in their homes as well as their diet make it so that wombats hardly ever have
to drink water.
Wombats prefer to eat at night and are thus largely nocturnal.
They’re herbivores who enjoy grasses and leaves, but, if green food is scarce, they’ve
also been observed eating roots, tubers, and even tree bark.
Rainy weather tends to be the deciding factor on whether green food will be available for
munching, and, in fact, it’s largely rain and lack thereof that can hurt wombat populations.
While it’s true that wombats, especially the endangered northern hairy-nosed wombats,
are predated by dingoes and feral dogs, droughts can create a larger impact on wombat populations
because a lack of green vegetation means not enough food for baby wombats.
If there isn’t enough rain to produce enough green vegetation, wombat breeding populations
will decline.
When they do have babies, they typically only have one.
Since wombats are relatively solitary creatures, the males don’t take part in raising the
young.
The baby will remain in the mother’s womb for just under a month and then emerge and
crawl into her pouch where it will stay for nearly five months at which point it will
begin to leave the pouch until it can no longer fit at around nine months of age.
The young wombat will stay with its mother for a year of longer and will be ready to
start its own wombat family by two or three years of age, depending on the species…
and the rain, of course.
In the wild wombats life an average of about a decade but in captivity they can live more
than twice that!
Wombats are brown, grey, or sometimes even cream colored and, of course, the hairy-nosed
wombat species have thickly whiskered snouts.
Their tails are nearly non-existent and their bodies are stout.
Wombats are the second largest living marsupials, falling behind kangaroos.
They average about 40 inches (1m) in length and 65 pounds (29.5kg) in weight.
Of course, if you think that’s big, you should have seen their rhino-sized prehistoric
relatives.
Giant wombats are considered to have been the largest ever living marsupials.
At a whooping 6 feet (1.8m) tall, 12 feet (3.6m) long, and 3 tons (2,700kg) in weight,
they could have easily carried probably at least ten modern wombats and one Chester on
their backs without even breaking a sweat… if wombats sweat anyway…
Some more facts to know about wombats are that their teeth never stop growing, so it
can actually be pretty difficult to get accurate age references on these elusive creatures.
Plus, speaking of being elusive, some of our research stated that many native Australians
have never even seen a wild wombat.
If you’re from Australia, let us know in the comments if you’ve seen a wombat in
the wild!
And we’ll end with this, since it seems appropriate: wombats have thick-skinned behinds
which they will present to any would-be predators from the safety of their burrow with only
their rear-end available for biting.
It’s as if they’re saying, “yeah, good luck with this!”
For more facts on wombats, please check out the links in the description.
There’s a lot we couldn’t fit into this episode so don’t be afraid to do some digging
- just like a wombat!
Give a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video and we’ll see you next time on Animal Fact
Files.