animals

Margarets Pages - My Australia series

AUSTRALIA .. Animals

AUSTRALIA is home to many varied species and on this page I'll show you some from tiny to large.
Here in the bush and creek areas, on our farm/property, we have koalas, kangaroos, platypus, possums, dingos to name a few.

A cluster of shy PIGMY or FEATHER-TAIL GLIDERS peer out of a Stringy Bark Tree in creamy bloom. This is the smallest possum adapted for a gliding type of flight; kite-like membranes between the limbs make them airborne. (see my australian native section on trees )

Possums are night creatures so not seen all that often by many. This HERBERT RIVER RING-TAIL POSSUM lives in north Queensland, mostly in the rainforests of the Atherton Tablelands and is easily identified by the rich colour and tiny ears.

Possums climb trees and eat vegetation. They have foxy pointed faces and furry tails (mostly), and are agile climbers though their tails cannot support

the weight oftheir bodies. The "thumb" and the clawless "big toe" can be opposed to the other digits on paw and foot. Possums are adaptable marsupials, able to survive in various habitats.

KANGAROOS range over great areas of dry inland plains.
On the left we have a family of RED KANGAROOS - only themales have the distinctive colouring. Kangaroos are marsupials which means they are a furry animal that gives birth to its young in an undeveloped state and suckles the embryo in a pouch.

A pouch young of the Western Grey Kangaroo attached to a nipple. A newborn young Eastern Grey Kangaroo weights under one gram. Born 36 days after mating, it climbs unaided to the pouch and attaches to a nipple, which swells to plug into its mouth. The female will mate again after giving birth, but until the baby leaves the pouch at about 11 months the embryo will not develop inside her.
If the suckling baby disappears, the embryo will resume development. A joey is not independent until it is 18 months old, by which time there may be a new pouch young one about 8 months old.

There are many varieties of kangaroos in varying colours. Smaller ones of the species are Wallabies, and we also have Rock Kangaroos. They are grass feeders. Some varieties can grow to over a metre from nosetip to butt of the tail, and the tail can be up to a metre long as well. A male can weigh up to 66 kgs (145lb) and a female about half that. In many areas, these animals have become a pest, eating out paddocks reserved for cattle.

The KOALA is in a class all of its own, and is the most attractive of Australia's marsupials. It doesnt have a tail, but has strong limbs and sharp claws to give it tree-climbing ability. The name Koala is derived from the Aboriginal word meaning "no drink" as it seldom drinks water. This animal gets its moisture from a diet of gum leaves. Most live in coastal forests of Queensland and some still inhabit the south-east coast area of Australia.
Koalas rely on their thick fur to protect them from the weather. It curls up into a ball to keep warm, or spreads its body out to keep cool. Dark fur on its back absorbs heat, while the lighter fur of its underside reflects heat.

A female can breed at 2 years of age, and a male from 5 years. He bellows and scent-marks trees from a gland on his chest to advertise his presence. The time between mating and the birth of a baby Koala is 35 days.

A Koala is well-adapted for life in the branches. It has long limbs and paws with rough pads and sharp claws. Each front paw has two "thumbs" which are opposable to the other 3 "fingers". The hind feet grip the trunk and support the Koala as its front limbs reach for another hold. The second and third toes are fused and used for grooming. The tail is very reduced.
Queensland Koalas eat Forest Red Gum and in Victorian they prefer Manna Gum leaves.

left a large Koala cub sits in this position so it can put its head into its mother's pouch to nurse.

A newborn Koala is bee-sized; it weighs half a gram and is less than 2 cm long. It stays attached to the nipple for 13 weeks and its eyes open at around 22 weeks. The baby's gut acquires the micro-organisms needed to break down leaves then it eats special droppings called "pap" produced by its mother and its teeth appear when it is about 24 weeks old. It will remain in the pouch for another month, and be independent of its mother at about 12 months.

The TASMANIAN DEVIL looks fierce and has been known to kill penned poultry and take lambs, but he is rather a scavenger more than a hunter and feeds on carcasses of animals it finds in the bush or on roads. In spite of its menacing jaws, a Tasmanian Devil is easily killed by a determined dog. This mammal is part of the Tiger Cat species and early settlers in Tasmania gave it this name. It lives in forest country.

A male would weigh 9 to 12 kg and a female 5 to 8 kg. They have powerful jaws and sharp teeth. They come out at night and will wander long distances to find food. They mate in March and the young are born in April. The life expectancy is about 8 years and the animal is a marsupial, rearing young in a pouch.

The PLATYPUS is an egg laying mammal (one of only 2) and is semi-aquatic. In water the duck-bill helps sift through sluch for aquatic life on which it feeds. On land, webbing on the limbs is folded back on stout nails which aid in burrowing. The female feeds her newly-hatched young on milk, sucked through pores of her skin. The creature lives in rivers and creeks in eastern Australia.

Water does not penetrate the dense fur of the Platypus, which is really a duck-billed wonder! It spends most of its time in water and its eyes are set on top of its head, while its nostrils open on top of the leathery bill. The broad, flat tail of the creature is used to store body fat. The female digs a breeding burrow which may take up to 20metres in length. She lays 2 soft sticky eggs each about 17 millimetres long, then incubates them between her abdomen and tail for about 2 weeks. The young suck milk that oozes onto patches of her abdomen. They leave the burrow after 3 months and are weaned at about 4 to 5 months.

The SPINY ANTEATER,( or ECHIDNA) like the platypus, is a monotreme, whose young are hatched from an egg. Found all over Australia, this creature is covered with sharp spines and has strong legs and claws.

Each of the echnida's spines is formed from a single hair.
If a burrowing Echnida is touched, it will hunch its shoulders, bristling up all its spines. Their life span is about 49 years.

Termites are an echidnas main food, and sometimes they can

be seen on top of an ant mound, with tongue sticking out and the ants walk onto it. Eventually it pulls back its tongue and swallows the ants. Echidnas mate between June and September and after 14 days the female lays a leathery shelled egg, which is incubated in her pouch for about 10 days before hatching into a baby which sucks milk from a patch on its mothers belly. The young leave the burrow between 6 and 8 weeks after hatching.

Australia's wild dog, the DINGO is about the same size as a Kelpie,and its colour is yellow-ginger, but black and tan, all-black, and white purebreds are sometimes seen.
They have only one breeding cycle a year, and its most probable ancestor is the Indian Plains Wolf. They live in a well-defined home range, and hunt for game. They have become a pest killing farm animals for food in some areas. Some inter-breed with domestic dogs. Wild dingoes howl, though a short bark may be used when greeting pack members.

The Dingo appears in Aboriginal art, and legends feature the Dingo. The Dingo's skull is larger and its canine teeth longer, than the skull and canines of domestic dogs of similar size. They can be tamed but not controlled. Sometimes they respond to commands, other times, they follow their own inclinations.

Another Australian marsupial is the WOMBAT, and they are mainly active at night, and avoid humans. They have sturdy legs and can walk long distances when foraging for food, like grasses and vegetation. They live in burrows and are the worlds largest burrowing animal. They can run at 40 km per hour for a short distance. 30 days after mating, the female gives birth to a bean-sized baby weighing 1 gram.
This one on the right is a brown-haired COMMON WOMBAT grazing plants on the sand-dunes.
They live in forests and woodlands of southeastern Victoria. Other varieties of the species live in other parts of Australia.

The Northern Hairy-nosed Wombat has silky fur, a hairy muzzle and longer ears than the Common Wombat. The Common Wombat (left) has a naked muzzle. The burrow protects the wombat from heat, cold, rain and bushfires. It has sleeping chambers lined with leaves and twigs, and there may be a "vestibule" where the wombat waits for dark, just inside the entrance. A burrow can be 30 metres long, and 50 centimetres high and wide.

An Australian FUR SEAL (left) showing the 2-tone colourings which are similar in both sexes.
This species inhabits rookeries and islands along the southern coast of Australia.

The thick fur and sleep guard-hairs of pinnipeds insulate their bodies (right). Seals and SeaLions belong to a group called "pinnepeds" which means "wing-footed animals". They are mammals.

Seals swim in sea water which is much colder than blood temperature.
They have large bodies with few projections, which reduces heat loss and under the skin is a thick insulating layer of fatty blubber.

Their coats are water-repellant and have an insulating undercoat of dense fur. They hunt under water.

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