Australia is home to some of the world's most unique wildlife, with over 80% of its animal species only native to the Australian continent. It is a land where mammals lay eggs, fish resemble a blob of jelly, birds look like dinosaurs, and turtles breathe through their bums. Explore our definitive 2026 guide below to discover the most bizarre, brilliant, and stunning wildlife on the planet!
The Kangaroo is a large hopping marsupial with a triangular body, powerful hind legs, small forelimbs, and a thick tail. Some species can hop at speeds of 70 km/h (45 mph) and leap up to twice their body height. Did you know that the kangaroo uses its tail as a 'fifth leg' while walking slowly?
More Kangaroo Facts
The Platypus is a bizarre aquatic mammal with a bill like a duck, webbed feet like an otter, a tail like a beaver, and it lays eggs like a lizard! But once the baby hatches, the mother feeds it milk like a mammal. It has specialised receptors in its bill that act like a radar to locate its prey underwater.
More Platypus Facts
The Koala is a marsupial with thick fur, large fluffy ears, small eyes, a large nose, and no tail. It lives in the eucalyptus forests in eastern Australia and can sleep up to 20 hours a day. The koala has paws with opposable thumbs. Though sometimes called a 'Koala Bear', it is not a bear at all.
More Koala Facts
The Quokka is a small hopping marsupial with an almost human-like smile, earning it the nickname “the world’s happiest animal”. It has a rounded body, greyish-brown fur, small ears and large dark eyes. Despite their friendly nature, quokkas should be treated with respect and caution.
More Quokka Facts
The Emu is a giant, flightless bird with shaggy mottled brown feathers, a small head, large orange-coloured eyes and a long neck. It can run at 60kph for long distances. It is the second-largest bird in the world and has a deadly kick which can cause serious injury to a human if provoked.
More Emu Facts
The Echidna is a small, dome-shaped mammal covered in sharp spines. It lays eggs like a reptile but it is a mammal that feeds its young milk! It has a rubbery highly sensitive snout electro-receptors for detecting prey and uses its sticky tongue to catch ants and termites. It is a monotreme.
More Echidna Facts
The Wombat is a solidly built burrowing herbivorous marsupial with coarse brown or black fur. It has short, powerful legs with strong claws for digging for food and tunnelling underground. Wombats walk slowly and grunt loudly if threatened. They do cube-shaped poop!
More Wombat Facts
The Blobfish is considered one of the ugliest creatures in the world. This deep-sea fish, with its jelly-like body, lives at depths of over 1,000 meters, where it resembles a large tadpole. On land, however, its soft, boneless body collapses, turning it into a slimy, pink blob.
More Blobfish Facts
The Cassowary, with dagger-like claws and powerful kicks, is the world’s most dangerous bird. Standing over 2 meters tall and weighing up to 59 kg, its body is covered in long hair-like, glossy black feathers, and it has no wings. Native to rainforests, it makes deep, rumbling and booming sounds.
More Cassowary Facts
The Blue-tongued Lizard gets its name from its distinctive bright blue tongue, which it sticks out to scare off predators. This omnivorous, slow-moving, medium-sized lizard lives in diverse habitats. It is a popular pet because of its docile nature and distinctive appearance.
More Blue Tongued Lizard Facts
The Red-bellied Black Snake is a sleek, venomous snake with a shiny black upper body and a red belly and sides. It is carnivorous and eats small animals. It has small, hollow syringe-like venom-injecting fangs. It accounts for 16% of all snakebites in Australia, but its venom is rarely fatal to humans.
More Black Snake Facts
The Kookaburra is a large terrestrial kingfisher with a large head and a prominent beak. It has a loud and distinctive call that sounds like human laughter. Hence its other names, Laughing Kookaburra and Laughing Jackass. Kookaburras eat lizards, frogs, snakes and other small animals.
More Kookaburra Facts
The Tasmanian devil is a marsupial about the size of a small dog. It is known by this name because of its blood-curdling screams, eerie growls, black colour, foul odour and aggressive behaviour. It is the world's largest carnivorous marsupial and prefers to eat dead animals.
More Tasmanian Devil Facts
The Headless Chicken Monster is a bioluminescent deep-sea swimming sea cucumber (Enypniastes eximia). It gets its nickname because it sometimes looks like a decapitated chicken. It is also called the Spanish dancer because of its graceful movements. It has a soft body with sticky, transparent skin.
More Headless Chicken Monster Facts
The Dingo is a medium-sized Australian wild dog with a lean, muscular body, yellow, red or black fur, pointed ears, and a bushy tail. It is an intelligent, opportunistic hunter and scavenger that is highly adaptable and survives in various environments. The dingo is Australia's apex predator.
More Dingo Facts
The Salt-water Crocodile is a deadly amphibious, carnivorous ambush reptile with scaly skin and a broad snout crammed with impressive teeth. It is one of the deadliest predators on earth. Crocodiles live in warm and temperate climates in freshwater rivers, estuaries, and creeks.
More Crocodile Facts
The Eastern Brown Snake, also known as the Common Brown Snake is the second most venomous snake in the world and responsible for the most snakebite fatalities in Australia. It has a slender brown or tan coloured body and feeds on vertebrates, frogs, lizards, birds, mammals, and eggs.
More Eastern Brown Snake Facts
The Shark is a carnivorous predator with a streamlined body, cartilaginous skeleton, sharp teeth, powerful jaws and an incredible sense of smell and detect a single drop of blood in an Olympic-sized pool. It can also senses vibrations in the water from great distances.
More Sharks Facts
The Wallaby is small to medium-sized hopping marsupial with compact legs and short forelimbs. They are almost identical to kangaroos but are smaller, have more fur, and live in wooded and rocky environments. Wallabies eat leaves and flowers, ferns, moss, and even insects.
More Wallaby Facts
The Mimic Octopus is a master of disguises. It can change its appearance to imitate many dangerous sea creatures to frighten predators away. It has nine brains, blue blood and three hearts. It is so confident of its disguises that doesn't attempt to hide from its predators.
More Mimic Octopus Facts
The Frilled Lizard nicknamed the "bicycle lizard" because of its comical high-speed two-legged sprint, ruffles out its scaly red and yellow frill to scare off predators. If this display doesn't scare off an attacker, it runs away quickly. It eats insects, smaller lizards, and mammals.
More Frilled Lizard Facts
Possums are nocturnal arboreal marsupials. They range in size from the tiny pygmy possum, which is 70mm, to the brushtail possum which is a meter in length. They have soft, silver-grey fur, dark orange to dark brown. They have excellent night vision, hearing, and a sense of smell.
More Possum Facts
The Box Jellyfish is the most venomous animal on earth. Its sting can kill a human in less than 4 minutes. It is pale blue and hardly visible. It gets its name from their four-sided box-like shape. It has long tentacles lined with thousands of deadly stinging cells called nematocysts.
More Box Jellyfish Facts
The Tasmanian Tiger, also known as the Thylacine, was a carnivorous marsupial that looked like a yellowish-brown dog with a stiff tail and dark stripes on its back. Humans caused its extinction at the start of the 20th century by hunting, habitat destruction and introducing diseases.
More Tasmanian Tiger Facts
The Redback Spider is the second most dangerous spider in the world. Females have black pea-shaped bodies with a red stripe on top of their bodies. The male is tiny and harmless and is often eaten by the female after mating. A bite from a female redback spider can be fatal if not treated promptly.
More Redback Spider Facts
The Gouldian Finch is beautifully coloured grass finch found throughout northern Australia. It was once found by the millions but are now nearly extinct. The Gouldian finch feeds on grass seeds. Because of its brilliant colours the Gouldian Finch is very popular as a pet.
More Gouldian Finch Facts
The Sugar Glider is a small arboreal, nocturnal marsupial mammal that glides from tree to tree and eats the sugary nectar of plants. It is about 250mm long and very agile. It is able to glide up to 90 meters. Though playful, it will fiercely attack any intruder.
More Sugar Glider Facts
The Black Swan is a large water bird with striking black plumage, a long neck, and a red bill. It makes high-pitched, musical, bugle-like sounds. The Black Swan is omnivorous, feeding on aquatic plants, insects, and small animals. The term 'black swan event' is named after these birds.
More Black Swan Facts
The Marsupial Mole, also known as an Itjaritjari, literally swims underground through the sand. It has no eyes or ears and a bony shield to protect its nose. The marsupial mole rarely wanders aboveground and is probably one of the most unusual and least understood animals in the world.
More Marsupial Mole Facts
The Reef Stonefish is the most venomous fish in the world. Spines along its back inject highly toxic and intensely painful venom. It camouflages itself to blend effortlessly into its environment and waits patiently for prey to come within range, which it gobbles up in a single bite.
More Stonefish Facts
The Cuttlefish is highly intelligent creature that is an expert at using colour, shape, and texture for camouflage. It can put on spectacular colour and light displays. The Cuttlefish is related to squid and octopuses. It has two tentacles and eight specialised arms for grasping its prey.
More Cuttlefish Facts
The Thorny Devil, also known as the Thorny Dragon and Thorny Lizard is armoured with spikes and has excellent camouflaging skills to blend into its surroundings providing superior protection from predators. It grows to about 20cm in length and feeds exclusively on black ants.
More Thorny Devil Facts
The Antechinus is tiny mouse-like marsupial with a pointy nose and notched ears. It is a ferocious hunter that preys on insects and small animals. The male mates itself to death and, therefore, reproduces only once in its lifetime. There are 15 species of antechinuses in Australia.
More Antechinus Facts
The Greater Bilby is a small, nocturnal, omnivorous marsupial with rabbit-like ears and a pointy pink snout. It has muscular forearms and claws for digging burrows and uncovering buried food. The female bilby has a backward-facing pouch to prevent dirt from entering.
More Greater Bilby Facts
The Red Kangaroo is the largest marsupial in the world and the biggest hopping animal on Earth. It can hop at speeds of over 60 km/h. Male red kangaroos have a muscular build that they often flex to assert dominance or impress females—much like humans showing off at the gym!
More Red Kangaroo Facts
The Swift Parrot, also known as the Red-faced or Red-shouldered Parrot, is a small green and yellow bird with long pointed wings. It is a rather noisy bird and the fastest parrot in the world. There are only about 2,000 in the wild, and they are projected to become extinct by 2031.
More Swift Parrot Facts
The Lyrebird is a ground-dwelling, pheasant-sized songbird known for its incredible mimicry. It can imitate chainsaws, mobile phones, horns, and much more. The bird gets its name from the unique shape of its tail feathers, which resemble the ancient Greek harp called a 'lyre'.
More Lyrebird Facts
The Numbat is a small, solitary marsupial that feeds on termites. Although not an anteater, it is sometimes called the Banded Anteater or Marsupial Anteater. Weighing around 700 grams, it has a pointed snout and a long, sticky tongue that's about half the length of its body.
More Numbat Facts
The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest and most stunning coral reef, covering over 344,400 square kilometres. It is home to more than 8,105 species of marine life. However, the reef is under threat from coral bleaching, pollution, and the destructive crown-of-thorns starfish.
More Great Barrier Reef Facts
The Leadbeater's Possum is a swift and agile marsupial that lives high in the forest canopy. It has thick, soft, greyish-brown fur on its upper body and beige fur on its underside. Its diet includes both animal and plant materials. Once thought to be extinct, it is now considered extremely rare.
More Leadbeater's Possum Facts
The Spotted-tailed Quoll, also known as the Tiger Quoll, is the second-largest carnivorous marsupial and roughly the size of a large cat. It has brown or black fur with distinct white spots and a cute pink nose. But don’t let its appearance fool you—it has sharp teeth and will bite if provoked.
More Spotted Quoll Facts
The Gilbert’s Potoroo is a nocturnal, herbivorous marsupial with long front limbs and curved claws that it uses to dig for underground fungi (truffles). It is the world’s rarest marsupial, with only 30-40 individuals remaining in the wild and around 100 more in two conservation colonies.
More Gilbert's Potoroo Facts
The Dugong is plant-eating marine mammal similar in appearance to manatees and distantly related to elephants. It feeds on the vast sea grass beds of the Great Barrier Reef area. Because of their sleek appearance and large teats, ancient sailors mistook them for mermaids.
More Dugong Facts
The Brushtail Possum is a semi-arboreal nocturnal marsupial. It has a bushy prehensile tail, which it uses to grasp onto branches. It is mostly solitary eating leaves but supplements its diet other foods such as grasses, herbs, flowers, fruits and insects. It is frequently found in urban areas.
More Brushtail Possum Facts
The Sydney Funnel Web is the deadliest and most aggressive spider in the world. It is ranked as the 9th most venomous animal in the world. Its bite can kill a human in 15 minutes. It preys on crawling insects like beetles and cockroaches, as well as small animals such as lizards.
Read More Funnel Web Spider Facts
The Bandicoot is a small omnivorous nocturnal marsupial with a pointy snouts, sharp pointed teeth, large hind feet, and it hops. It has strong digging claws for digging out underground prey. It is one of the more vocal marsupials. There are 20 species of bandicoots in Australia.
More Bandicoot Facts
The Night Parrot is a small ground-dwelling nocturnal bird that shelters in dense clumps of shrub only emerging at dusk to forage for food. It is the world's most mysterious and elusive bird. It was once thought to be extinct, but now it is classified as endangered, but only about 250 survive.
More Night Parrot Facts
The Corroboree Frog is a highly poisonous amphibians with striking yellow and black markings. Unlike most frogs, it walks rather than hops. It feeds on ants, beetles, mites, and insect larvae. Fewer than 50 remain in the wild, threatened by climate change and the chytridiomycosis fungus.
More Corroboree Frog Facts
The Giant Clam is the world’s largest sessile mollusc. It can grow up to 1.5 meters and weigh 230 kilos. It has large protruding blue iridescent lips which prevents its from closing its shell completely. At the centre of its blue lips it has two siphons (tubes) which it uses to suck in water and also eject waste.
More Giant Clam Facts
The Ringtail Possum is a small arboreal, nocturnal marsupial with a prehensile tail with a distinctive white tip, which it uses to grip branches. It has two thumbs on each front paw. It normally spends most of its life high in the tree tops. where is feeds on eucalyptus leaves.
More Ringtail Possum Facts
The Tawny Frogmouth is a nocturnal bird that gets its name because of its large frog-like mouth. It camouflages itself by fluffing its feathers to look like a dead tree stump. It feeds on insects and sometimes larger prey such as reptiles, lizards and small mammals and birds.
More Tawny Frogmouth Facts
The Musky Rat-kangaroo is the smallest macropod and the only kangaroo that doesn't hop. As its name suggests, it looks like a rat and has a musky smell. It weighs between 330-680gms. It is dark brown in colour. Its head is greyish brown with large ears and eyes and a pointed snout.
More Musky Rat Kangaroo Facts
The Clownfish comes in a variety of colours and typically have vertical bands across their bodies. It lives amongst poisonous sea anemones come in a variety of colours such as orange, red, pink, yellow, black, and brown. They are all born male but can change into females as needed.
More Clownfish Facts
The Tree Kangaroo is a type of kangaroo that live in trees. It climbs by wrapping its forelimbs around a tree and hopping up with its powerful hind legs. The tree kangaroo is omnivores, eating leaves, fruit, flowers, bark and even eggs and baby birds. It is very clumsy on the ground.
More Tree Kangaroo Facts
The White-throated Snapping Turtle breathes through its bum, yes its anus and can remain submerged for days! It's about 45cm long and lives to over 100 years. It is herbivorous and feeds on aquatic plants, shoreline vegetation, algae and fruits. It is critically endangered. The Fitzroy River Turtle also breaths through its bum!
More Snapping Turtle Facts
The White-tipped Stick Nest Rat is a moderately-sized nocturnal, herbivorous rodent weighing roughly 60g. It built its nest of sticks, which it added to over the years, making a massive nesting mound. It last sighted in 1933 and was declared extinct in 2016.
More Stick Nest Rat Facts
The Antilopine Kangaroo is the only kangaroo that lives entirely in the tropics. It has a face that looks like that of an antelope, hence its name. It is about 1.2 meters tall, and weighs up to 49kgs. It is active at dawn, dusk and into the night. It rarely moves about during the day.
More Antilopine Kangaroo Facts
The Sea Anemone is a marine invertebrate related to coral and jellyfish. It is 1.5cm to 1.8 meters in diameter. It has a tubular body with a central gut cavity and captures its prey with venomous tentacles. Typically, has an adhesive foot with which it attaches itself to a suitable surface.
More Sea Anemone Facts
The Fairy Penguin, now officially called the Little Penguin, is the smallest penguin species in the world. It has three eyelids, can drink salt water and is an expert swimmer. During the day, it goes fishing, feeding on small fish and crustaceans. It can consume as much as its body weight in food per day.
More Penguin Facts
The Woylie is a small greyish-brown nocturnal marsupial with a long prehensile tail, which it wraps around a bundle of nesting material and transports it home. It uses its snout to identify ripe fruiting fungi underground, and uses its sharp fore-claws to dig out its food.
More Woylie Facts
The Bat, also known as the Flying Fox, is a large flying herbivorous mammal. It feeds at night, using its ears like a radar to locate its food. It hangs upside down when resting. This is called roosting. The flying fox is one of only two placental mammals native to Australia.
More Flying Fox Facts
The Rakali, also known as the Water -rat and Australian otter, is a semi-aquatic placental mammal with waterproof fur, webbed hind feet and long tail with a white tip. It lives in burrows on the banks of rivers. It forages underwater, eating insects, fish, crustaceans, snails, and frogs and many other small animals.
The Cockatoo is a large noisy long-lived parrot with a curved bill and a prominent crest on its head that it can raise and fan out. Its plumage is white, grey, or black, about 44–51 cm in length and has a wingspan of up to 103 cm. It feeds on berries, seeds, nuts, fruits, flowers roots and insects. It nests in tree hollows.
The Blue-ringed Octopus is highly venomous. Its bite is usually painless but deadly, capable of causing death within 30 minutes. It hides in coral reefs and rock pools, blending with its surroundings. It preys on crustaceans and small fish, using its long arms to grab them before delivering a fatal bite with its strong beak.
The Tiger Snake is large, aggressive, and highly venomous, responsible for the second-highest number of snake bites in Australia. It has tiger-like markings on its body (but not stripes) and is also an excellent swimmer. It preys on frogs, small reptiles, birds, fish, and small mammals.
The Goanna, also known as a monitor lizard, is the largest lizard in Australia and the world’s fourth-largest. It uses its sharp claws for digging and its keen sense of smell to locate food, which consists of insects, smaller reptiles, birds, mammals, and carrion. It is an excellent sprinter and tree climber.
The Dolphin is a very vocal, playful, intelligent, and social animal. It has a smooth, streamlined body with front flippers and can swim at speeds of up to 30 km/h and leap up to 9 meters. It has a good sense of hearing both in and out of water and feeds on invertebrates, fish, and squid.
The Parrot is a loud, raucous bird found throughout Australia. It eats seeds, nuts, fruit, berries, flowers, nectar, and pollen, and may sometimes also eat small prey such as insects, larvae, and grubs. Australia is home to 56 species of parrots, including cockatoos, lorikeets, rosellas, and budgerigars.
The Australian Sea Lion has a stocky body with short fur, large head, and short, narrow flippers, which it uses for swimming and walking on land. It usually lives in isolated bays and sheltered areas and hunts fish and squid. It is endangered, with only about 15,000 left in the wild.
The Red-eyed Tree Frog lives in Australian rainforests and wetlands. It has a bright green body with yellow and blue stripes on its lower body, and bright orange eyes and feet. It is a nocturnal hunter that feeds on moths, crickets, grasshoppers, flies, mosquitoes, and other insects.
The Taipan is a large, fast-moving snake that ranges in colour from beige to grey and pale brown to dark brown, growing up to 3 meters long. It mainly eats rodents. It is one of the most venomous snakes in the world but prefers to avoid confrontation with humans.
The Peacock Mantis Shrimp is brightly coloured can grow to 18 cm. It feeds mainly on molluscs and crabs. It kills its prey with the fastest punch in the world. The punch from its front claw is so fast and powerful that it creates small implosions in the water, that generate heat, light, and sound.
The Handfish prefers to walk on its pectoral and pelvic fins rather than swim, hence its name. Its skin is covered with tooth-like scales. It lives at depths of 5-40 meters and eats crustaceans and worms. There are fewer than 3,000 left in the world. It may be critically endangered.
The Humpback Whale is a massive marine mammal, growing up to 17 metres long and weighing up to 36,000 kilograms. Its diet consists of krill and small fish, which it catches using an ingenious bubble-net feeding technique. Each year, humpback whales migrate from the Antarctic to warmer waters.
The Plains-wanderer is a quail-like, ground-dwelling bird that lives in semi-arid grasslands. It is expertly camouflaged and quickly hides at the first sign of danger. Once widespread across Australia, the Plains-wanderer is now critically endangered and faces an imminent threat of extinction.
The Loggerhead Turtle is the largest hard-shelled turtle in the world. It can grow up to 1.5 metres in length and weigh up to 200 kilograms. It feeds mainly on shellfish, crabs, sea urchins, and jellyfish. Loggerhead turtles are classified as a vulnerable species and can live for up to 80 years.
The Eastern Bettong is a small, rat-like, nocturnal hopping marsupial that lives in open forests and grassy woodlands. It feeds on underground fungi, plant roots, and grubs and insects. The species became extinct on mainland Australia in the 1920s but still survives on the island of Tasmania.
The Green Turtle gets its name from the colour of its fat, which is green. It feeds on seagrasses and also loves to eat the venomous box jellyfish. The Green Turtle migrates long distances. It is endangered due to habitat loss, fishing, climate change, poaching, and pollution.
The Textile Cone is an extremely venomous sea snail with a harpoon-like tooth that can pierce the skin, rubber gloves, and even wetsuits. Its venom causes respiratory paralysis and eventual death. It gets its name from the textile-like designs on its shell. It is carnivorous.
The Leatherback Turtle is the largest turtle of them all. It is called a leatherback because it doesn't have a hard shell but has leathery skin. It eats jellyfish and invertebrates. It may swim up to 16,000 kilometres a year between nesting and foraging grounds.
The Wedge-tailed Eagle, also know as the eagle-hawk, is Australia's largest bird of prey. It has a massive wingspan of up to 2.3 meters, a distinct wedge-shaped tail and feathered legs. It can soar for hours on end, using thermal air currents to reach altitudes of up-to 2,000 meters.
Introduced Animals were brought to Australia by humans. These include the dingo, cattle, sheep, camels, horses, rabbits, and foxes. They have caused the extinction of native animals and plants and damaged the ecosystem.
More Introduced Animals Facts
There are more than 330 species of marsupials, ranging in size from the 2.1-meter tall red kangaroo to the tiny 6 cm planigale (weighing about as much as a teaspoon of sugar). Marsupials inhabit various ecological niches in trees, on the ground, and underground.
More Marsupials Facts
Most native Australian animals are nocturnal; they are only active when its dark. This helps them avoid the extreme daytime heat and conserve water in the dry Australian environment.
More Nocturnal Animals Facts
Over 300 species of Australian animals that are endangered. Unfortunately, due to human activities, the number of species becoming extinct has accelerated at an alarming rate.
More Endangered Animals Facts
Extinction is a natural process of evolution, but humans have drastically accelerated the rate. Many Australian megafauna vanished after the first Aboriginal peoples arrived, and since European settlement in 1788, hundreds, if not thousands, more native species have been lost.
More Extinct Animal FactsThe reason Australia has such unique animals was its long isolation from the rest of the world. For millions of years, the Australian continent was so far away from any other landmass that there was no possibility for new types of animals to get to it. So the animals that were already on the continent evolved, in isolation, into animals most suitable for the Australia's harsh, dry environment.
Photo: Quokka - the happiest animal
Ever wondered what animals are really native to Australia? Generally speaking, it is any animal that has been in Australia before the arrival of humans. The reason this definition is the best is because animals such as the koala and emu have been in Australia for millions of years and are unquestionably native. The dingo, on the other hand, which is considered native by some, was only brought to Australia by humans about 5,000 years ago. Many other animals, such as camels and rabbits, were introduced by European settlers less than 200 years ago. These animals are definitely not native to Australia.
Until Europeans came to Australia in 1788, there were no hoofed animals (like horses, cattle, goats, deer, etc.) in Australia. There were no apes or monkeys in Australia either.
Rats and mice were the only animals that the Europeans didn't bring intentionally. They arrived as stowaways on ships.
Photo: Kangaroo hopping
There are three types of mammals in Australia. These are monotremes, marsupials, and placentals.
Monotremes first appeared between 145 and 99 million years ago and are the oldest type of Australian mammals. Two out of the five known species of monotremes in the world live in Australia. The echidna and platypus are two such animals found in Australia.
Marsupials appeared about 64-65 million years ago and are the second oldest type of mammal found in Australia. They occupy every niche of the Australian habitat and range from the large red kangaroo to marsupials smaller than a mouse.
Placental mammals are relatively recent arrivals to Australia. Bats were the first to arrive, getting here about 23 million years ago. Rodents arrived about 5-10 million years ago. These animals reached Australia by flying or hitching a ride on floating debris and crossing the oceans that separated Australia from Asia as Australia stated drifting slowly closer to Asia. These placental mammals make up a very small percentage of the total mammalian population. Humans introduced several animals. The dingo was the first of these, coming here about 5,000 years ago. Beginning in 1788, many types of placental mammals such as cattle, foxes and rabbits were brought to Australia.
Photo: Blue-tongue lizards
Australia has many amphibians and reptiles found nowhere else in the world.
Lizards – There are over 700 species unique to Australia alone.
Snakes – Australia has 140 species of land snakes and 32 species of sea snakes. Of these about 100 are poisonous snakes. The bite from about 12 of these can be fatal to humans. The taipan and red-bellied black snake are some such poisonous snakes.
Frogs – Four families of native frogs, numbering 230 species, inhabit the continent. 135 of these are unique to Australia.
Crocodiles – Australia has two species of crocodiles. The Saltwater crocodile is the world's largest and can weigh as much as 1,000 kilos and is known to attack humans. Freshwater crocodiles are much smaller and do not attack humans.
Turtles – There are 35 species of freshwater turtles. Six species of sea turtle also visit the coastlines.
Photo: Australian red parrot
Australia has 800 species of birds; of these, 350 are only found in Australasia.
Ratites such as the emu and cassowary, are large flightless birds similar to the ostrich. The Emu lives in the Australian Outback. And the critically endangered cassowary lives in the tropical rainforests of Australia.
Megapods such as the Mallee fowl trace their ancestry as far back as Gondwanan time. These stocky birds look somewhat like chickens, but they have small heads and large feet (that's why the name "megapod" means big-feet). These birds are usually found in forested areas.
Parrots unique to Australia comprise nearly 20% of the world's known species. These include the cockatoo and the almost extinct night parrot, which lives in the Australian desert.
Other birds, such as Kookaburras, are the world's largest kingfishers.
Australia’s wildlife is under serious threat, with over 2,245 species and ecosystems currently listed as threatened. The biggest challenges are climate change and invasive species. New targets for 2026 aim to put all priority species on the path to recovery by 2031, supported by a major expansion of protected “safe havens.” Efforts such as high-tech monitoring of koala habitats and the re-wilding of the Tasmanian devil are at the forefront of the fight against extinction. As you explore this list, you’ll see why these remarkable creatures are worth saving.