A group of wombats is called a wisdom, a term that doesn’t obviously match their reputation as slow-moving, burrowing marsupials, but likely nods to their surprisingly capable engineering skills. Wombats are largely solitary animals, but the collective noun exists for those rarer moments when several share overlapping burrow systems or a favorable patch of grazing land.
Wombats are remarkable diggers, capable of excavating extensive burrow systems that can stretch dozens of feet with multiple entrances and chambers. During Australia’s devastating bushfires, wombat burrows have been documented sheltering other displaced wildlife, an accidental but genuinely valuable ecological service that may be part of what earned them the “wisdom” label.
Bonus fact: wombats produce cube-shaped droppings, one of the only animals known to do so, a trait scientists believe helps the droppings stay put on logs and rocks as territorial scent markers without rolling away.
Wombats don’t have many well-documented alternate collective nouns, making “wisdom” the most commonly cited term available.
Related: Collective Nouns for Mammals