Australian fauna
Australia is unusual because the
animal population
evolved largely out of contact with the other
continents. A very high percentage of Australian animals are endemic (found nowhere else) including about 70% of its
birds and 95% of its
mammals. Over time, marsupials filled most of the ecological niches that are occupied by
placental mammals in most other parts of the world. Australia is also home to the only three
monotreme species in the world - two
echidnas and the
Platypus. The only placental mammals naturally found on the Australian mainland are
bats; a large number of
rodents which arrived only about 5 million years ago, and the
Dingo, which was introduced to
Australia by humans perhaps 7000 years ago.
Australia is also home to large and diverse populations of various other types of animal - snakes, lizards, insects, birds and fish.
Mammals
Monotremes
Marsupials
Placentals
- Dingo (introduced)
- flying-foxes
- Rabbit (introduced pest)
Birds
Reptiles
Lizards
- blue-tongue lizard
- frilled lizard
- goanna
- geckos
- skinks
- thorny lizard
Snakes
- tiger snake
- black snake
- brown snake
- copperhead snake
- taipan
Amphibians
- Corroboree frog
- Eastern tree frog
Pest species
Recently extinct Australian fauna
- Australian megafauna: from first human colonisation to 1788:
- Extinct Australian animals: from 1788 to present: