Australian Animals

When travelling in Australia, your chances are very good that you will see many native Australian animals. Of course you know Kangaroos and Koalas, don't you? Most native Australian mammals are marsupials, i.e. their young are born  extremely small, moving quickly to their mother's pouch where they are nourished by milk glands. When they get older, they start leaving the pouch, but still climb back when in danger. Marsupials are a very ancient group of mammals; there are also some species which live in America,  the opossum family, and in Asia. But in Australia, they never had any competition by the "ordinary" placental mammals (e.g. you and me), and developed several large forms, like a giant wombat. Most of the larger forms died out about 40'000 years ago, possibly caused by human intervention (fire, hunting).

Another even older group of mammals exists in Australia, the monotremes, or egg-laying mammals. Only two families exist, the platypus, living in the water, and the echidna (spiny ant-eater), living on land.

Through human intervention, other groups of mammals settled in Australia. The aborigines brought the dog-like dingo, and the British many European animals, like rabbits, cats, foxes, deer, cattle, but also Asian animals like camels and water buffallo. Some species of mice and of course bats have reached Australia before the first humans. These are accepted by biologists as "real Australians", but the discussion is open for dingoes or camels as they "fit in the landscape", and hunting is going on for the others...

Below a list of all Australian animals shown on this site. On this list, there are no photos taken in a zoo or animal park. Two of the species listed below may be not amongs the living any more. Bet you find out quickly which ones...

To follow our "Animals Walk Through" web site tour (40 pages), just click on the Kangaroo road sign below!