Well-Loved Animals Of Australia
14 Aug 2011
Australian animal kingdom – this is a special and wonderful part of the country. Unique fauna and flora of the continent are simply astonishing. The great thing is that all this exoticism jumps, flies, crawls and swims often near a man in the city center, park or public garden. All animals are loved by people in Australia. Beautiful zoos and wildlife parks grow everywhere like mushrooms. It happens not by accident – the local animals – this is the most powerful lure for tourists from all over the world.

Fauna of Australia is exclusively original. The unusual shape of a kangaroo hit the very first Europeans who made a step on the shore of the continent. Image of the kangaroo became an element of the emblem of the country.
Amazing animals, covered with thick fur, but with a duck’s beak and laying eggs – platypus for a long time remained a biological mystery. “Teddy Bears” – Koala with baby on her back is admired by all nature lovers. People are still amazed by different lizards that run on two hind legs, and many other unique Australian animals.
However, a variety of animal species of Australia is small: only 235 known species of mammal, 720 – birds, 420 – reptiles and 120 species of amphibians that live on this continent and adjacent islands. Among animals dominate marsupials; there are about 125 species of them.
More highly organized mammals appeared on the continent much later then marsupials. They are presented by bats, few rodents, apparently placed on the trunks of trees that wave wash to the shore, and dog dingo, brought there from South East Asia.
In Australia, there are no members of the order of predatory (other than dingo), monkeys, ungulates and other animals, which are common in other parts of the world. Due to the fact that in the Australian zoogeographic region there was no higher mammals, marsupials, without facing competition and enemies, gave an extraordinary diversity of species, the relevant to biological types of higher mammals.
So, now exterminated devil held a vital niche of the real wolf, although he had no kinship with him; marsupial mole resembles African golden mole; marsupial squirrels are remarkably similar to our flying squirrels; wombats and externally, and by their way of life resemble marmots.
Despite this really great variety of amazing animals which are so close to people in Australia, there are many different attractive things on this continent. But of course there are such people who come on Australia just to see these beautiful animals.


