A wombat that digs sandy burrows and grazes mainly at night.
Its broad muzzle is fringed with fine whiskers. Compared with the bare-nosed wombat, it has softer fur and longer, more pointed ears.
At the burrow mouths of a translocated northern hairy-nosed wombat population, cameras captured social encounters rarely. Researchers placed 32 cameras at Richard Underwood Nature Refuge in Queensland and reviewed six months of footage, from December 2016 to May 2017. Only 21 of 6,607 videos (0.3%) showed social behaviour; vocalisations appeared only during those interactions.
The authors suggested that wombats may avoid meeting at burrow mouths. But one camera at an entrance cannot record every encounter elsewhere, and the study covered one insurance population. The figure describes the sampled videos, not all social contact. Thousands of quiet recordings offer only a small window into how these elusive wombats use their underground home.
Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) · Critically Endangered · Australia (national statutory listing)
The northern hairy-nosed wombat is listed as Critically Endangered under Australia’s EPBC Act. The Australian Government’s action-plan profile says the species is restricted to protected areas at Epping Forest National Park and Richard Underwood Nature Refuge in Queensland, with an estimated 315 animals across the two sites in 2021. That is a dated estimate, not a current census. Conservation priorities include maintaining grassland and burrow habitat, managing wild dogs and weeds, and reducing fire and grazing pressures. The camera study describes behaviour at the translocated insurance population; it does not reassess the species-wide population or status.