More than 80% of our plants, mammals, reptiles and frogs are unique to Australia and are found nowhere else in the world. Some of our Australian animals are very well known like kangaroos, dingos, wallabies and wombats and of course the koala, platypus and
Australia probably has between 200,000 and 300,000 species, about 100,000 of which have been described. There are some 250 species of native mammals, 550 species of land and aquatic birds, 680 species of reptiles, 190 species of frogs, and more than 2,000 species of marine and freshwater fish.
While animals throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa have migrated long distances over time and during various major climate shifts, that hasn't been an option for Australian species. As a result, many of the animals in this place exhibit unique characteristics and survival techniques.
Koalas - one of Australia's most beloved animals, thanks to their cuddly appearance and adorable nose. With their grey fur, big, fluffy ears, and large nose, koalas are not just one of the most well-known cute Australian animals, they can actually only be found (in the wild) in the country's east.
Fact: Northern hairy-nosed wombat is the rarest land mammal in the world. In the past 100 years, it occurred in Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales.
The endangered Woylie or Brush-tailed Bettong is an extremely rare, rabbit-sized marsupial, only found in Australia.
The laughing kookaburra is Australia's national symbol. The kookaburra is a brown-colored bird, about the size of a crow. The male is easily distinguished from the female by the blue hues on his wing feathers and darker blue on his tail feathers.
The dingo is Australia's largest land-based predator, occurring across most of the mainland and on many nearshore islands. Our new research, published in the journal Mammal Review, reveals the breadth and diversity of dingo diets across the continent.
For starters, mainland Australia is the world's largest island that also tops as a continent. In fact, Australia is considered the 2nd driest continent after Antarctica. The busy Sydney harbour or the skyline of metropolitan Melbourne make it seem unbelievable that nearly 40% of Australia's land is uninhabitable.
Australia is known for many things, including swathes of tropical beaches, marine reserves, Aboriginal culture, cute koalas, rolling wine country, and lush rainforests.
Australia has about one million different fauna or native animal species. More than 80 per cent of the country's mammals, reptiles and frogs are unique to the Australian natural environment, along with most of its freshwater fish and 70 per cent of its birds.
Sloths live in tropical forests in South and Central America, and they actually move so slowly that algae grows on their fur.
Australia is home to a variety of animals and plants. Some of the most iconic animals we have here are the kangaroo and koala in addition to the echidna, platypus, dingo, wallaby and wombat.
Australia is not the only country to eat its national emblem – elk is eaten in Sweden, carp in Japan – but for an increasingly urban population, it can be a hard sell.
Australia's national floral emblem is the golden wattle (Acacia pycnantha Benth). When in flower, the golden wattle displays the national colours, green and gold.
Arguably the most famous Aussie animal of all, the kangaroo can be spotted just about anywhere across the country, but how can we go past a location named after these iconic creatures?
A new species of shark, called Apristurus ovicorrugatus. The discovery process began several years ago, when researchers were going through uncataloged materials in the Australian National Fish Collection, housed in Hobart, where they found a mysterious egg that they were unable to assign.
The rarest animal in the world is the vaquita (Phocoena sinus). It is a kind of critically endangered porpoise that only lives in the furthest north-western corner of the Gulf of California in Mexico. There are only 18 left in the world.
Australia's rarest bird of prey - the red goshawk - is facing extinction, with Cape York Peninsula now the only place in Queensland known to support breeding populations.