Australia

Information about Australian animals:

The animals of Australia are many, with a mind-boggling diversity and bizarre adaptations that can be seen nowhere else on earth. Between 80-90% of all animals found on this continent are endemic to Australia and can only be found there. Due to the continent’s long isolation, the animals there have been isolated for so many millions of years, they have evolved specialized abilities to cope with the harsh environment. There are few placental animals – only bats and rodents.

Most of the Australian are marsupials – or animals that raise their young in a pouch. In fact an amazing 100 marsupials (70% of all of the world’s total) occur in New Zealand, Australia and the surrounding islands. Comparatively, there is only one in North America. One of the few non-marsupials is the dingo, but it is believed that it was actually a domestic dog that was introduced to Australia a few thousand years ago by humans. Because of it’s isolation, the flora and fauna there are especially vulnerable to invasive species – like the Cane Toad.

Many of the Australian mammals live in the outback and are not threatened due to the usual problems facing wildlife today, but some species – notably the koala, has had its number decline due in large part to an infectious disease that passed on from one koala to another. One of the most famous extinct Australian animals is the Tasmania Tiger, which was not really a tiger but a Thylacine, and the last one known died in the 1930’s.