They build extensive burrow networks and don’t seem to mind when other woodland creatures use them as flameproof bunkers.
It was a tale that seemed too good to be true, and in fact it was: During the devastating 2019-2020 Black Summer wildfires in southeastern Australia, false reports circulated that wombats had protected other animals by herding them into their burrows.
But like any good fairy tale, the reports did contain an inkling of truth; it turns out that wombat burrows do serve as fireproof refuges for small mammals, birds and reptiles during and after extreme fires.
Dale Nimmo, an ecologist at Charles Sturt University in Australia, was asked to fact-check the rumors of hero wombats that spread during the fires.
“In going through the literature,” Dr. Nimmo said, “there was quite a lot of evidence that species other than wombats were regularly using wombat burrows.”
While it turned out that wombats weren’t gallantly ushering woodland creatures out of harm’s way, Dr. Nimmo decided to explore the role of their burrows in forest ecosystems affected by a fire.
His colleague Grant Linley went searching for wombat burrows in Woomargama National Park and Woomargama State Forest. Around 70 of their combined 120 square miles had burned during the 2019-2020 fires. By the time Mr. Linley got there in the summer of 2021, vegetation had already started growing back.