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 echidna.
One of the world's best loved and iconic animals has been keeping a secret. It turns out kangaroos may be the world's only “pentapedal” animals, effectively having five legs. Before you start taking a close look at stills of Skippy the bush kangaroo, it's not a secret limb – the fifth “leg” is the animal's tail.
There are no native hoofed animals, monkeys, cats or bears (and no truly native dogs, although the dingo has apparently been here for at least 3000 years), half of our mammals are marsupials, and we are the only continent with all three of the sub-classes of mammals (see below).
Australia's tiger, also known as the lost Tasmanian tiger, roamed the Australian bush almost 100 years ago before going extinct. But, thanks to modern science, Australia's 'tiger' may be resurrected now instead of remaining lost.
There are no elephants to be found in the Australian wild and your only chance of spotting one is within a controlled environment. That is to say, elephants can only be found within zoos and other commercialized wildlife reservations.
Animals that start with V include mammals such as vampire bat, vervet monkey, Virginia opossum, volcano rabbit and Visayan warty pig; birds such as vultures, vireos and the velvet asity; insects such as the viceroy butterfly, and fish such as the viperfish.
This is TRUE. A snail's mouth is no larger than the head of a pin, but can have over 25,000 teeth (but these aren't like regular teeth, they are on its tongue).
Large mammals, such as primates, cattle, horses, some antelopes, giraffes, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, elephants, seals, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, generally are pregnant with one offspring at a time, although they may have twin or multiple births on occasion.
