Australian Mammals

Kangaroos    Koalas   Dingoes   Echidnas   Platypuses  
Possums   Spotted Cuscus   Sugar Gliders   Wombats 

Isolation from other lands for about 55 million years enabled the Australian continent to become a sanctuary for unique and primitive mammals. The egg-laying monotremes are found more abundantly in Australia than elsewhere. One of them, the platypus, a zoological curiosity, is an aquatic, furred mammal with a bill like that of a duck and poisonous spurs. It lives in the streams of south-eastern Australia. Another monotreme of Australia is the spiny anteater, or echidna.

Most native mammals are marsupials, the young of which are nourished in an external marsupium, or abdominal pouch. The best-known marsupials of Australia are the herbivorous kangaroos. There are about 50 species of kangaroo, ranging from some that stand as tall as a human to others as small as cats. The large red or gray kangaroo may stand as high as 2.1 m (7 ft) and can leap 9 m (30 ft). The wallaby and bettong are smaller members of the kangaroo family.

Other well-known marsupials are the koala, an arboreal, herbivorous marsupial which is protected throughout Australia, various species of possum, the burrowing wombat, bandicoot, and pouched mouse. The Tasmanian devil is found only on the island of Tasmania. Rodents, bats, and the dingo, or warrigal, belong to a different order of mammals. Please choose an animal to browse:


Photographer Tim O'Flynn

Courtesy of Suzie Thomas Pub P/L Sydney