Where does the cube shape form?

Inside the last part of the intestine

Which way does a wombat’s pouch open?

Backwards, towards the hind legs

Did wombats herd animals into their burrows during the 2019–20 bushfires?

No, but other animals do use their burrows

Wombat

Vombatus ursinus

The bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus), also called the common wombat, is a stocky burrowing marsupial of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania. It grazes mostly on grasses at night, spends about two-thirds of its life underground and is the only animal known to make cube-shaped poo. Its closest living relative is the koala.

Also known as Bare-nosed wombat, Common wombat, Coarse-haired wombat

Wombat abilities

Last 17% of the gut shapes the cubes
The only animal known to make cube-shaped poo. The corners form inside the end of the intestine, not at the exit.
- Bands of the gut wall are about 2× thicker and 4× stiffer than their neighbours. As the gut squeezes, they sculpt flat sides and corners.
- The poo dries on the way (it ends up about 65% water), so it cracks into pieces about as long as they are wide.
- Press reports of the first study say a wombat can leave up to about 100 cubes, roughly 2 cm across, in a night.
- The research won the 2019 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics.
Intestine ≈ 9 m
Cubes take shape in the last 17%
Stiffer and softer bands of gut wall press the corners into place.
Sources [9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]
4 fused plates in the rump
Chased by a predator, a wombat dives into its burrow and blocks the entrance with its tough backside.
- Under very thick skin, the rump has four bony plates fused together, wrapped in cartilage, fat and fur.
- Stories of wombats crushing foxes’ skulls with their rump are unproven: see the myths below.
- Males also chase and nip a female’s rump when courting.
Sources [2, 9, 11]
6–10 months in the pouch
The pouch opens towards the back legs, so soil flung back while digging doesn’t fill it.
- A newborn weighs about 1 g and is under 3 cm long. It crawls into the pouch on its own.
- There are two teats, but only one joey at a time.
- The joey leaves the pouch at 6–10 months and stays close to its mother until about 18 months.
Sources [2, 9, 10]
15–20 m typical burrow length
Short, strong legs and broad claws dig burrows with side tunnels and a nest chamber at the end.
- Burrows can go more than 2 m deep, though many measured in Tasmania were less than 1 m down.
- Each wombat uses several burrows and may visit up to four in one night. Burrows are shared over time, though rarely at once.
- Inside a winter burrow it stayed about 11 °C with 94% humidity while the weather outside swung.
Burrow length
Typical burrow15–20 m
Longest mapped by radar (Tasmania)17.8 m
Longest reportedup to 30 m
Sources [5, 9, 10, 12, 21]
24 teeth that keep growing
Rootless teeth keep growing all its life, so chewing tough grass never wears them away.
- Wombats are the only marsupials with just one pair of upper front teeth, like a rodent.
- Kangaroos’ lower front teeth keep growing too, so “the only marsupial with ever-growing teeth” isn’t right.
- Their front teeth can gnaw through obstacles, much like a beaver’s.
Sources [2, 7, 9, 22]
½ the energy in hard times
One of the most energy-saving mammals of its size. When food is poor, a wombat can roughly halve its energy use.
- Bare-nosed wombat metabolism is among the lowest of any mammal over 10 kg, and its home range is up to ten times smaller than expected.
- In dry seasons hairy-nosed wombats use so little water that they don’t need to drink.
- Food takes about 2–2.5 days to pass through (in captive wombats), long enough to get the most out of tough grass.
Time spent feeding
Bare-nosed wombat3–8 h a night
Eastern grey kangaroo≈18 h a day
Northern hairy-nosed wombats feed for only about 2 h a night in summer and 6 h in winter.
Sources [9, 10, 14, 23, 24, 25]
≈40 km/h reported top speedStill debated
Short legs, but museums and parks agencies say a wombat can burst to about 40 km/h. We found no published measurement.
- The 40 km/h figure is repeated by the Australian Museum and the Queensland Government.
- No study we could find has actually clocked a wombat, so treat it as an estimate.
Sources [2, 25, 26]
44 chemicals found in its poo
Wombats pile cube scats on rocks, logs and burrow entrances, and each wombat’s scats smell different.
- In a 2025 study, wombats spent longer sniffing piles where scientists had added scats from an unfamiliar wombat.
- A second smell organ in the roof of the mouth (the vomeronasal organ) helps read the messages.
- Scientists think cubes may also stay put on rocks and logs instead of rolling off, but nobody has tested that yet.
Sources [3, 4, 18]

Tap a pin on the model or a part below.

- The big, bare, grainy nose pad (the rhinarium) gives the bare-nosed wombat its name. Hairy-nosed wombats have fur there instead.
- A large smell centre in the brain and a second smell organ in the roof of the mouth (the vomeronasal organ) help it find food and read other wombats’ scent messages.
- Its whiskers help it feel its way around dark burrows.
Sources [1, 2, 3]
- Small eyes, and researchers say its eyesight is poor: a wombat relies much more on smell.
- It is mostly out at night, with busy spells at the start and the end of the night.
Sources [4, 5]
- Short and rounded on a bare-nosed wombat.
- Hairy-nosed wombats have longer, pointier ears: one of the easiest ways to tell the species apart.
Sources [1, 2, 6]
24 teeth
- One pair of top front teeth and one pair below, no canines, then one premolar and four molars on each side: 24 teeth in all.
- Front teeth and cheek teeth have no closed roots, so they keep growing all its life.
- Wombats are the only marsupials with just one pair of upper front teeth, like a rodent.
- Its food is tough: in one study, 95% of the plant pieces in wombat scats were grasses, mostly snow grasses.
Sources [2, 7, 8]
15–20 m typical burrow
- Short, powerful legs and strong claws dig burrows that are often 15–20 m long.
- The front paws can also pick up plants and pass them to the mouth.
Sources [9, 10]
4 fused plates inside
- Under very tough, thick skin, the rump has four bony plates fused together, wrapped in cartilage, fat and fur.
- Chased into a burrow or a hollow log, a wombat blocks the entrance with its rump.
- The tail is a stub about 2.5 cm long, almost hidden in the fur.
Sources [2, 9, 11, 12]
6–10 months inside
- It opens backwards, towards the hind legs, so soil doesn’t get in while the mother digs.
- There are two teats inside, but a wombat raises just one joey at a time.
- A newborn weighs about 1 g and is less than 3 cm long.
Sources [2, 9, 10]
≈9 m of intestine
- The digestive tract is about 9 times as long as the body.
- Most of the fibre is digested in the big first part of the colon, where microbes ferment the grass.
- In captive wombats, food took about 2–2.5 days to pass through.
- DNA from scats shows wombats in New South Wales eat more than 200 kinds of plants, mostly grasses.
- The cube shape forms in the last 17% of the intestine.
Sources [9, 13, 14, 15, 16]
- Bare-nosed wombats have coarse, thick fur. Hairy-nosed wombats’ fur is softer and silkier.
- Tasmanian wombats are smaller than mainland ones: about 85 cm and 20 kg, against about 1 m and 27 kg.
Sources [2, 6, 9]

Real wombats

Photos from Wikimedia Commons. Two of them can repaint the 3D model.

Bare-nosed wombat on Maria Island, TasmaniaPhoto: JJ Harrison, CC BY-SA 3.0
The bare, grainy nose that gives the species its namePhoto: Ena Music, CC BY-SA 4.0
Mother with joeyAfter leaving the pouch at 6–10 months, a joey stays close to its mother until about 18 months.One joey at a timeA joey looks out of the backwards pouch. Photo: TimSagorski, CC BY-SA 4.0
Mother and young at a burrow, Maria IslandPhoto: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0
Cube-shaped scats at Cradle Mountain, TasmaniaPhoto: SojournerRL, CC0
Burrow entrance in Kangaroo Valley, New South WalesPhoto: Schomynv, Public domain
Southern hairy-nosed wombatFurry nose, longer pointed ears and soft, silky fur. The smallest wombat.Least Concern · Endangered in New South WalesSouthern hairy-nosed wombat, South Australia. Photo: Andrew Katsis, CC BY-SA 4.0
Bass Strait wombat (Vombatus ursinus ursinus) with its youngPhoto: Paul J. Morris, CC BY-SA 4.0
Crossing a road near Thredbo: cars kill thousands of wombatsPhoto: Maksym Kozlenko, CC BY-SA 4.0

Wombat by the numbers

Measured by scientists and wildlife agencies, with comparisons you can picture.

Weight: 22–39 kg; adult range; mainland average about 26 kg; Tasmanian wombats average about 20 kg⁠[2, 9]
Length: 84–115 cm; head and body (mainland); Plus a tail of only about 2.5 cm⁠[2, 12]
Burrow: 15–20 m; typical length; up to 30 m reported; ≈ 15–20 wombats nose to tail⁠[9, 10, 30]
Grazing: 3–8 h; a night, wandering up to 3 km; Wombat (max)8 hGrey kangaroo18 h; A grey kangaroo feeds ≈18 h a day⁠[9, 10, 25]
Gut: ≈9 m; of intestine, about 9× its body length⁠[9, 13]
Digestion: 2–2.5 days; for food to pass through (captive wombats)⁠[14]
Cubes: ≈2 cm; per side; up to about 100 a night (press reports)⁠[18]
Newborn: ≈1 g; and under 3 cm long at birth; Grows to 22–39 kg⁠[10, 2]
Teeth: 24; and all of them keep growing⁠[7]
Oldest: 35+ yrs; in a zoo (Wain, Japan); wild lifespan is poorly known⁠[31, 2]

Wombat myths and facts

Tap Myth or Fact for each claim, then check the answer.

0 of 8 answered

“Wombats make cube-shaped poo because they have a square bottom.”
“A wombat’s pouch opens backwards.”
“During the 2019–20 bushfires, wombats herded other animals into their burrows to save them.”
“Wombats crush foxes’ skulls with their rump against the burrow roof.”
“Wombats are the only marsupials whose teeth never stop growing.”
“Wombats use their poo to send messages.”
“Wombats fiercely defend their own territory.”
“Diprotodon, the giant Ice Age marsupial, was a giant wombat.”

Wombat records

Superlatives and record holders, each checked against its source.

Oldest wombat ever (in a zoo)
35 yrs 178 days
Wain, a bare-nosed wombat
Satsukiyama Zoo, Osaka, Japan · verified May 2025⁠[31]
Guinness “oldest marsupial in captivity”
30 yrs 200 days
Patrick, Ballarat Wildlife Park
Australia · died 2017 (Wain has since lived longer)⁠[36]
Biggest burrowing marsupials
22–39 kg
Wombats
the largest marsupials that dig their own burrows⁠[30, 37, 2]
Only known cube-shaped poo
≈2 cm cubes
Bare-nosed wombat
shaped in the last 17% of the intestine⁠[18, 16]
Prize-winning poo science
2019
Yang, Hu, Carver and team
Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for explaining cube poo⁠[17]
Counted by their hair
2000
Northern hairy-nosed wombat
first wild species counted from DNA in hair caught on sticky tape at burrows⁠[38]

Life of a wombat joey

From a 1 g newborn to a grown-up wombat in about two years.

About 1 month
Born tiny
After a pregnancy of about 30 days, the newborn weighs about 1 g and is less than 3 cm long. It crawls into the pouch on its own.⁠[2, 9, 10]
0–6 months
Life in the pouch
It feeds on milk from one of two teats. The pouch opens backwards, so it stays clean while mum digs.⁠[9, 2, 10]
6–10 months
Out of the pouch
The joey leaves the pouch for good but stays close to its mother, calling her with a soft “huh-huh”.⁠[9, 2, 10]
≈15 months
Weaned
It stops drinking milk and grazes on grass like an adult.⁠[9]
≈18 months
Moving out
Young wombats leave their mother between about 18 months and 2 years.⁠[9, 1]
≈2 years
Grown up
Wombats can breed at about 2 years old. A mother usually raises one joey every 2 years.⁠[9, 2, 39]
35+ years
A long life
Wild lifespans are poorly known, but in zoos wombats can live into their thirties.⁠[2, 31]

Inside a wombat burrow

Wombats spend about two-thirds of their lives underground, and many other animals use their burrows too.

15–20 m
typical burrow length
Up to 30 m has been reported, and some go more than 2 m deep, with side tunnels and a nest of grass and bark.⁠[9, 10, 12]
≈11 °C
and 94% humidity inside
A winter burrow in Tasmania stayed steady while the weather outside swung. Wombats stay underground when it’s hotter than about 26 °C.⁠[21, 12]
56
species seen at burrows
Cameras caught bush rats, antechinuses, lace monitors and birds using burrow sites more than nearby ground, even after the 2019–20 fires.⁠[30, 40]
Up to 20
burrows used by one wombat
A wombat may use up to 20 burrows over a few weeks, sleeping 1–4 days in one before moving on.⁠[12, 5]

Are wombats endangered?

The bare-nosed wombat is not threatened overall, but disease and roads hit hard in places, and one of its cousins is among the rarest mammals on Earth.

IUCN Red List

Least Concern (LC)

Still widespread in south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, where counts rose over the past decades despite mange. But it has disappeared from much of its old range, such as western Victoria, since European settlement, and only one population remains in Queensland.⁠[27, 41, 2, 42, 12]

IUCN Red List, assessed October 2024 (published 2025).

Threats

Sarcoptic mange−94%
A skin mite (the same one that causes scabies in people) brings hair loss and thick, crusty skin, and kills if untreated. It wiped out 94% of the wombats in one Tasmanian national park, and 80% in seven years in central Tasmania.⁠[43, 44, 10, 45]
Cars2,391
Wombat road deaths reported by citizen scientists in 2015–2019, most of them in winter.⁠[46]
Lost range
Land clearing since European settlement has left wombats missing from many places they used to live.⁠[2, 42]

What’s helping

Mange treatment
Approved pour-on medicine (moxidectin) and a newer single-dose treatment (fluralaner) can clear mange from wild wombats in weeks.⁠[45, 47]
Citizen science
People report sick and road-killed wombats with the WomSAT app, which shows where to put warning signs and treat mange.⁠[46]
Island refuges21 → ≈2,600
21 wombats moved from Flinders Island to Maria Island in 1971 now number about 2,600.⁠[42, 48]

Wombat cousins

Northern hairy-nosed wombatCritically Endangered
Down to about 35 animals in 1982. Thanks to a 20 km dog-proof fence and new refuges (Richard Underwood, 2009; Powrunna State Forest, 2024), there were about 400 at Epping Forest National Park in 2022. Drought, floods, predators and its tiny range still threaten it.⁠[26, 6, 49, 50, 29]
Southern hairy-nosed wombatLeast Concern
Least Concern worldwide, but listed as Endangered in New South Wales.⁠[28, 10]

Bare-nosed vs hairy-nosed wombats

There are three living wombat species. Check the nose and ears to tell them apart.

Bare-nosed wombat vs southern hairy-nosed wombat vs northern hairy-nosed wombat
	Bare-nosed wombat	Southern hairy-nosed	Northern hairy-nosed
Scientific name⁠[2, 25]	Vombatus ursinus	Lasiorhinus latifrons	Lasiorhinus krefftii
Nose⁠[1, 6]	Bare and grainy	Covered in fur	Covered in fur
Ears⁠[2, 6, 1]	Short, rounded	Longer, pointed	Longer, pointed
Fur⁠[2, 6]	Coarse and thick	Soft and silky	Soft and silky
Average weight⁠[2, 25]	≈26–30 kg	≈26 kg (smallest)	≈32 kg (largest)
IUCN status⁠[27, 28, 29]	Least Concern	Least Concern	Critically Endangered

The bare-nosed wombat is the only living species in its genus; both hairy-nosed wombats belong to Lasiorhinus.

Wombat quiz

12 questions. Every answer is somewhere on this page.

Question 1 of 12Score 0

What shape is wombat poo?

Wombat field notes

Diet, food web, safety and badges from the Snappit field guide.

Diet & Feeding

These sturdy marsupials munch on grasses, roots, and herbs they find by foraging.

Primary Foods

Grasses
Roots
Herbs
Fungi
Bark
Foraging Method: Foraging

Ecological connections

Tasmanian DevilEaten by
Tasmanian Devils hunt wombats in Tasmania.
Wedge-tailed EagleEaten by
Large eagles may take young wombats as prey.
European RabbitShelter
Rabbits and other small mammals often use abandoned wombat burrows.

Safety

Danger 2/5 · Low

Wombats are generally shy and avoid humans. Always observe them from a safe distance.

Traits

Collections

Mammals

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Diprotodontia
Family: Vombatidae
Genus: Vombatus

Also known as

Bare-nosed wombat · Common wombat · Coarse-haired wombat · Forest wombat · Naked-nosed wombat · Badger (old settlers’ name)

Sources for these wombat facts

51 studies and references · checked Oct 16, 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

How to identify Wombat?

Compare ears, muzzle, tail, feet and coat markings. Size is hard to judge without something nearby for scale, and young mammals may not have adult coloring yet. Mammal Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details.

How long is Wombat?

84-115 cm

How much does Wombat weigh?

22-39 kg

How long does Wombat live?

5-15 years

What does Wombat eat?

These sturdy marsupials munch on grasses, roots, and herbs they find by foraging.

Where is Wombat usually found?

Forests

Why is wombat poo cube-shaped?

The corners form inside the last 17% of the wombat’s roughly 9 m intestine, where bands of stiffer and softer gut wall squeeze the drying poo into cubes about 2 cm across. Wombats leave the cubes on rocks, logs and burrow entrances as smell messages.

How fast can a wombat run?

The Australian Museum and the Queensland Government say wombats can sprint at about 40 km/h over short distances, but we found no study that has measured it.

How long do wombats live?

Wild lifespans are poorly known (the Australian Museum says up to about 11 years). In zoos wombats can live into their thirties: Wain, a bare-nosed wombat in Japan, was verified at 35 years and 178 days old in 2025.

What is a baby wombat called?

A joey. It is born after about 30 days weighing about 1 g, lives in its mother’s backwards-facing pouch for 6–10 months and leaves her at about 18 months.

Are wombats endangered?

The bare-nosed wombat is listed as Least Concern, although mange and cars kill many. The northern hairy-nosed wombat is Critically Endangered, with about 400 animals in 2022.

Did wombats save other animals in the bushfires?

No. Stories that wombats herded animals into their burrows during the 2019–20 fires aren’t true. But their burrows really are used by many other animals, including after fires.

What is the difference between bare-nosed and hairy-nosed wombats?

Bare-nosed wombats have a big hairless nose, short rounded ears and coarse fur. The two hairy-nosed species have furry noses, longer pointed ears and softer fur.

Where does the word “wombat” come from?

From wambad in Dharug, the Aboriginal language of the Sydney area. It was first recorded in English in 1798.