Common wombat
Vombatus ursinus (Shaw, 1800)
The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) is a marsupial mammal in the family Vombatidae, order Diprotodontia. It is a large, terrestrial, nocturnal herbivore with an adult body mass of 26 kg.
Quick facts about the common wombat
Checklists record it in Australia, and the IUCN lists it as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.
- Weight
- 26 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 26.1 years – 30 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 28.5 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 2.02 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.77src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the common wombat
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
_skull_at_Melbourne_Museum.jpg){kind=link}
Where does the common wombat live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The common wombat is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the common wombat?
The common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), also known as a bare-nosed wombat, is a marsupial, one of three extant species of wombats and the sole extant member of the genus Vombatus. It has three subspecies: Vombatus ursinus hirsutus, found on the Australian mainland;
Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis (Tasmanian wombat), found in Tasmania; and Vombatus ursinus ursinus (Bass Strait wombat), found on Flinders Island and Maria Island in the Bass Strait.
The mainland subspecies is the largest of the three, with its largest specimens measuring up to 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) and 35 kg (77 lb). The common wombat is herbivorous, mainly nocturnal, and lives in burrows. Being a marsupial, its joeys inhabit a pouch on the mother for around five months after birth.
From the Wikipedia article “Common wombat” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Common_wombat&oldid=1384128851), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the common wombat endangered?
The common wombat is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the common wombat classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderDiprotodontia
- familyVombatidae
- genusVombatus
- SpeciesVombatus ursinus (Shaw, 1800)
Synonyms Didelphis ursina, Phascolomis wombat
Other names and names in other languages (34)
- Bare-nosed wombatEnglish
- Bare-nosed wombatEnglish
- Bass Strait wombatEnglish
- Coarse-haired wombatEnglish
- Coarse-haired wombatEnglish
- Flinders island wombatEnglish
- Forest wombatEnglish
- Tasmanian wombatEnglish
- ومبت شائعArabic
- Vombat comúnAragonese
- vombat obecnýCzech
- Almindelig wombatDanish
- NacktnasenwombatGerman
- ΦασκωλόμυςGreek
- Uómbat ComúnSpanish
- Uómbat de Pelo ÁsperoSpanish
- vompattiFinnish
- Wombat CommunFrench
- Vombato comuneItalian
- Vombato dal pelo ruvidoItalian
- ウォンバットJapanese
- 애기웜뱃Korean
- SlettevombatNorwegian Bokmål
- NakensnutevombatNorwegian Bokmål
- Vanlig VombatNorwegian Bokmål
- WombatDutch
- Wombat tasmańskiPolish
- VombatePortuguese
- Vombate comumPortuguese
- Короткошёрстный вомбатRussian
- nakennosvombatSwedish
- VombatTurkish
- Вомбат короткошерстийUkrainian
- 袋熊Chinese
Relatives of the common wombat
Other species in the same genus Vombatus.
CompareCommon wombat vs Phascolomys angasiiCommon wombat vs Phascolomys assimilisCommon wombat vs Phascolomys bassiiCommon wombat vs Phascolomys fuscus
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the common wombat?
The common wombat is a marsupial mammal in the family Vombatidae, order Diprotodontia.
How heavy is a common wombat?
An adult common wombat has a body mass of 26 kg, which places it in the large size class (25 to 250 kg).
What does the common wombat eat?
The common wombat is a herbivore.
Which countries is the common wombat recorded in?
Checklists record the common wombat in Australia.
Is the common wombat endangered?
No. The IUCN lists the common wombat as Least Concern, which is not a threatened category.
How long does a common wombat live?
The common wombat has a lifespan of 26.1 years, with sources reporting up to 30 years.
How many young does a common wombat have?
The common wombat has 1 young per litter, after a gestation period of 28.5 days.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Common wombat (Vombatus ursinus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/common-wombat
“Common wombat (Vombatus ursinus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/common-wombat.
@misc{common_wombat_2026,
title = {Common wombat (Vombatus ursinus)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/common-wombat},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}