Two of the five known living species of monotremes occur in Australia: the platypus and the short-beaked echidna. Monotremes are mammals with a unique method of reproduction: they lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. The platypus, a venomous, egg-laying, duck-billed, fur-covered amphibious mammal is one of the strangest creatures in the animal kingdom. When introduced to society in Europe, no one could believe the existence of a living being with such characteristics.
The short-beaked echidna; covered in hairy spikes, with a tubular snout in the place of a mouth has a tongue that can move in and out of the snout about 100 times per minute to capture termites. Australia is also home to the world's largest and most diverse selection of marsupials:
They give birth to relatively undeveloped young that often reside for a certain amount of time in a pouch located on their mother’s abdomen, as in the case of kangaroos or on her upper back as for koalas. Close to 70% of the 334 extant species occur on the Australian continent.
There are very famous and emblematic native animals like the kangaroo and the emu that have been chosen to hold the Australian Coat of Arms, because they symbolise the Australian spirit of moving forward, based on the fact that neither animal can move backwards easily.
The Australian crocodile that Paul Hogan made very famous in the movie Crocodile Dundee.
The famous Bambi (original movie shot in Australia)
The tender koala that spends most of his time sleeping.
The dingoes, the famous Australian dogs that are not a domestical animal, they can’t bark but the can bite.
The famous Tasmanian devil, thousands of birds, and many other animals, waiting to meet you on your next adventure in this magnificent geographical landscape.
Part of this information was extracted from Wikipedia and the picture from Website
© Image by Tourism Australia
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