This article originally appeared on Well-known magazine.
When Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics, unlikely hero appeared: an unofficial mascot known as Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat. Introduced by comedians, it helped spark a wave of love for a critter not always adored by human Australians. Over the centuries, the native marsupial has been eaten in stew and reviled as a pest. Now it is a focus of conservation and animal welfare efforts.
Wombats are closely related to koalas and feed their young in pouches, like other marsupials. One of the three types is threatened And another threatenedbut the bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus), found in southeastern Australia and Tasmania and believed to be over a million, is neither. So it is less studied than its furry cousins.
“This is a species that everyone loves, but we don't know much about,” says Georgia Stannard, an archaeologist at La Trobe University in Bundoora/Melbourne.
Stannard is one of a handful of scientists working to change that, and the efforts are paying off. Over the past decade, research has revealed bare-nosed wombats characteristics of its underground habitat (as explored by a robot), the cuts of meat most loved by the Tasmanian Aborigines thousands of years ago (head, breast and forelimbs were brought home to the cave), and the intestinal methods responsible for this surprising, cube-shaped feces (which earned an ironic Ig Nobel Prize in 2019). Recent work has also highlighted the worrying consequences of a parasitic disease that first came to the continent via European settlers.
Stannard, along with Scott Carver of the University of Georgia in Athens and Alynn Martin of Texas A&M University-Kingsville, summarized the state of knowledge about the bare-nosed wombat in 2024 Annual Review of Animal Biosciences. In addition to noting its prodigious digging abilities and busting wombat myths (it does not have a square anus and is unlikely to reach speeds of 25 miles per hour), the authors write that bare-nosed wombats could get into trouble due to dangers on roads and conflicts with people. Climate change and the spread of scabies also pose dangers to remaining populations.
“It doesn't take much imagination to say that within a possible period of, I think, 50 to 100 years, wombats could decline to the point where they would be considered endangered,” Stannard says.
Human-wombat relations: it's complicated
The wombat's relationship with humans goes back thousands of years. Researchers, for example wombat remains found in a Tasmanian cave used by humans 20,000 to 15,000 years ago. Wombats were good to eat, says Stannard: 'little casseroles on legs.' (Stannard had no taste, but the diaries of George Augustus Robinson, a British and… connection with the indigenous population report in the 19th century that wombat tail made a tasty stew with onions and potatoes.)
Settlers and early visitors to Australia initially valued wombats, along with other iconic species such as the platypus. “They were one of the most popular Australian animals,” says Carver, an ecologist who started studying the creatures while studying at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.
But that fascination soured when wombats, prolific diggers, became caught up in the general anger against pesky, non-native rabbits. Rabbits were introduced for hunting in 1859 and, like rabbits, spread, creating habitats and causing major ecological damage across most of the continent. Wombat digging is good for the soil because it converts nutrients. But beleaguered farmers, worried about their crops, fences and dams, did not always distinguish between burrowing wombats and burrowing rabbits. By the mid-20th century, so were civil servants in the state of Victoria offer a premium of one dollar per wombat head.
Even in the late 20th century, Stannard says, “wombats were considered a major pest” – and in some parts of Australia that is still the case.
But wombats are feeling the love again, and experts are certainly appreciating its benefits. “They are ecological engineers,” says Julie Old, a biologist at Western Sydney University. “Their digging creates a habitat for other animals and supports plant growth by aerating the soil and making water more accessible.”
Some people still kill wombats to protect their buildings or crops, but this usually requires a permit, and conservationists have found ways to protect infrastructure. If wombats dig under fencing, farmers can install wombat-sized fences. They are made of mesh and swing like dog doors so they are weighted wombats to penetrate but to deter unwanted critters, such as wallabies that eat grass intended for sheep. Other one-way gates can be hung over den entrances in places where wombats aren't wanted, allowing the animals inside to escape but not get back in, says Old.
Digging into wombat science
Bare-nosed wombats now inhabit a crescent-shaped strip of southeastern Australia, plus Tasmania and Flinders Island, which lies between Tasmania and the mainland. Although their underground habitat makes them difficult to count, Carver and others estimate there are more than 1.3 million in circulation. Using genetic markers, Carver has discovered that the populations occur on the mainland, Tasmania and Flinders Island are genetically different.
Even with new efforts to protect them, their people still face many dangers. She often end up as roadkill. Climate change could force the cool-weather-loving critters out to higher areas. And colonists probably introduced the mite Sarcoptes scabiei to the landscape. The mite causes nasty mange in humans and similar symptoms in other mammals, but a debilitating “crust scabies” in wombatsthe data of which goes back a century.
The mites burrow into the wombat's skin. The marsupial's fur falls out and it becomes emaciated and disoriented. Cracks break the skin and if left untreated, the creature eventually dies from secondary infections. “It's terrible,” says Oud.
Carver and other researchers are trying to understand the bare-nosed wombat so they can better assess which threats are most urgent. Carver cites vehicle collisions, scabs and landowner encounters as major issues.
To gather more information, Old is conducting a citizen science project, WomSAT tracks wombat sightings, collects population data and raises awareness about the animals. She expects it will help scientists with this understand the rates of scabies and to identify traffic fatality hotspotsso they can use this information to support wombats.
WomSAT has mapped more than 23,000 wombat sightings from as far north as Brisbane and as far west as Adelaide, with occasional reports outside the current typical range. One citizen scientist caught wombats mate on video. Data so far shows that many wombats die on roads, especially during late winter and early spring. In response, Australians have installed warning road signs at some common wombat crossings.
Historical records and more recent research show that wombats share burrows as they travel through their habitat, spreading scabies. When Carver explored those caves with a robot called the WomBothe discovered that the underground environment is cool and moist ideal for the survival of mites and transmission. Conservationists try to protect the wombats with wire structures mounted over the burrow entrances so that the abandoned wombats will trigger a flood of topical medication, but that is not the case. not clear how much this helps. Researchers are field-testing longer-acting drugs, Carver says.
Although his research has expanded to other hosts also infected by the scabies mite, he says he wouldn't have missed the decade-plus he spent chasing the shy, solitary creatures and examining their geometric droppings ( even including the times he caught scabies in his test subjects). He hopes studies on bare-nosed wombats will continue to waddle along, just like the creatures.
“It's a fascinating animal,” says Carver.
This article originally appeared in Well-known magazine, an independent journalistic initiative of Annual Reviews. Register for the newsletter.
