What If Gone

Species → Bare-nosed Wombat

Bare-nosed Wombat

Vombatus ursinus

1,345,000 individuals (mainland Tasmania + Flinders Island + Victoria, 2020)
Extinction risk Least Concern
Ecosystem engineerShelter providerClimate change
Bare-nosed Wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
Photo: Charles J. Sharp, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

What if it disappeared?

Impact Moderate
Over 18 years, Tasmania

Unlike most species tracked in this reference collection, the common wombat's population is growing rather than declining on mainland Tasmania and Flinders Island — meaning the post-fire refuge function measured in the next point remains, for now, available at scale rather than threatened by a decline in the species itself.

Documented
Detail

Knoblauch, W., Carver, S., Driessen, M.M., Gales, R. et Richards, S.A. (2023). Abundance and population growth estimates for bare-nosed wombats. Ecology and Evolution, 13(9), e10465.

By combining 19 years of surveys (2002-2020), the authors estimate the population at about 840,665 individuals on mainland Tasmania and 71,826 on Flinders Island, growing annually by 1.2% and 2.9% respectively over the period — a positive trend that says nothing, however, about the fate of mainland Australian populations more directly exposed to recurring gigafires, where the same service could be far more fragile.

After the gigafires, Australia

This service matters most after a gigafire: in terrain burned by the 2019-2020 gigafires, wombat burrows shelter more native species than comparable control sites without a burrow — and this gap widens further in the most severely burned areas.

Documented
Detail

Linley, G.D., Geary, W.L., Jolly, C.J., Spencer, E.E., Ashman, K.R., Michael, D.R., Westaway, D.M. et Nimmo, D.G. (2024). Wombat burrows are hotspots for small vertebrates in a landscape subject to gigafire. Journal of Mammalogy, 105(4), 752–764.

Across 28 burrows and 28 paired control sites, monitored by camera traps over 16,645 trap-days, the authors recorded 56 species in total: 48 around burrows (including 31 directly interacting with them) versus 43 at control sites, with higher native mammal richness at burrows. The study directly qualifies the viral stories of wombats actively 'herding' other animals into their burrows during the 2019-2020 fires: that intentional behavior is not confirmed, but the genuine refuge function is, by field data.

Documentation

Last verified: August 14, 2026