An Overview of Australia's Wombats and Their Lifestyle

Wombats are marsupials—mammals whose females have a pouch to feed the young—with short legs and extremely strong claws which help them with their impressive burrowing. Female wombats only give birth to one young at a time. All wombats stay in their mother’s pouch for approximately six months and will continue to live under their mother’s care until they are approximately one year old. Wombats sexually mature at age two and usually live for roughly five years. However, wombats held in captivity often have been known to live up to twenty years. Their shortened life-span in the wild is due to the limited availability of food because wombats often have to compete for food with cattle, sheep, and other grass-eating animals. Their only natural enemies are the Tasmanian devil and the eagle. They live in Australia and are divided into three different species.

Common Wombat

The Common Wombat is found mainly on the New South Wales border and around the coastal area through to South Australia. Like most species of Wombat, they prefer hill-covered habitats so they can burrow. An average adult Common Wombat weighs around 30 kg or 66 lbs, but Common Wombats can weigh up to 40 kg or 88 lbs. They are large, the males tending to be larger than the females, usually reaching between 80 cm (31 in.) to 130 cm (51 in.) in length. Despite their short legs, Common Wombats can run up to 40 km/hr (25 mph). The Common Wombat eats native grasses, roots, shrubs, and mosses and has rootless teeth that continue to grow throughout the course of their lifetime. The Common Wombat is nocturnal, although it will occasionally venture out during the day.

The Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat

The Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat is an endangered species on the brink of extinction. During the nineteenth century, Wombats lived throughout New South Wales and Victoria, but now they live only in a small section of the Epping Forest National Park located in Queensland. The drought of the 1900s is thought to be the cause of their drop in numbers and the lack food availability is most likely the reason numbers have not increased over recent years.