The fauna of Australia consists of a large variety of animals; some 46% of birds, 69% of mammals, 94% of amphibians, and 93% of reptiles that inhabit
the continent are
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
to it.
This high level of endemism can be attributed to the continent's long geographic isolation,
tectonic
Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons.
These processes ...
stability, and the effects of a unique pattern of
climate change
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
on the soil and
flora
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...
over geological time. A unique feature of Australia's fauna is the relative scarcity of native
placental
Placental mammals (infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguished ...
mammals. Consequently, the
marsupial
Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...
s – a group of mammals that raise their young in a
pouch, including the
macropods,
possums
Possum may refer to:
Animals
* Didelphimorphia, or (o)possums, an order of marsupials native to the Americas
** Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia
*** Common opossum, native to Central and South America
*** Virginia opossum, ...
and
dasyuromorphs
Dasyuromorphia (, meaning "hairy tail" in Greek) is an order comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the extinct thylacine. In Australia, the exceptions inc ...
– occupy many of the
ecological niche
In ecology, a niche is the match of a species to a specific environmental condition.
Three variants of ecological niche are described by
It describes how an organism or population responds to the distribution of Resource (biology), resources an ...
s placental animals occupy elsewhere in the world. Australia is home to two of the five known extant species of
monotreme
Monotremes () are mammals of the order Monotremata. They are the only group of living mammals that lay eggs, rather than bearing live young. The extant monotreme species are the platypus and the four species of echidnas. Monotremes are typified ...
s and has numerous
venomous
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...
species, which include the
platypus
The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...
,
spider
Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...
s,
scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...
s,
octopus
An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
,
jellyfish
Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...
,
mollusc
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...
s,
stonefish
''Synanceia'' is a genus of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Synanceiinae, the stonefish, which is Taxonomy (biology), classified within the Family (biology), family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfish and relatives. Stone ...
, and
stingray
Stingrays are a group of sea Batoidea, rays, a type of cartilaginous fish. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae (deepwate ...
s. Uniquely, Australia has more venomous than non-venomous species of
snake
Snakes are elongated limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes (). Cladistically squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales much like other members of the group. Many species of snakes have s ...
s.
The settlement of Australia by
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
between 48,000 and 70,000 years ago and by Europeans from 1788, has significantly affected the fauna. Hunting, the introduction of non-native species, and land-management practices involving the modification or destruction of habitats have led to numerous
extinction
Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
s.
Based on the
list of Australian animals extinct in the Holocene, about 33
mammals
A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...
(27 from the mainland, including the
thylacine
The thylacine (; binomial name ''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was a carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmani ...
), 24
birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...
(three from the mainland), one
reptile
Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...
, and three
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
or
subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
are strongly believed to have become extinct in Australia during the
Holocene
The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...
epoch. These figures exclude dubious
taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...
like the
Roper River scrub robin (''Drymodes superciliaris colcloughi'') and possibly extinct taxa like the
Christmas Island shrew (''Crocidura trichura''). Unsustainable land use still threatens the survival of many species.
To target threats to the survival of its fauna, Australia has passed wide-ranging federal and state legislation and established numerous
protected areas
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...
.
Origins and history
Both
geologic
Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...
and climatic events helped to make Australia's fauna unique. Australia was once part of the southern supercontinent
Gondwana
Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...
, which also included South America, Africa, India and Antarctica. Gondwana began to break up 140 million years ago (MYA); 50 MYA Australia separated from Antarctica and was relatively isolated until the collision of the
Indo-Australian Plate with Asia in the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
epoch 5.3 MYA. The establishment and
evolution
Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
of the present-day fauna was apparently shaped by the unique climate and the geology of the continent. As Australia
drifted, it was, to some extent, isolated from the effects of global climate change. The unique fauna that originated in Gondwana, such as the marsupials, survived and
adapted in Australia.
After the
Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...
, fauna of Asian origin were able to establish themselves in Australia. The
Wallace Line
The Wallace Line or Wallace's Line is a faunal boundary line drawn in 1859 by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace and named by the English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley.
It separates the biogeographic realms of Asia and 'Wallacea', a ...
— the hypothetical line separating the
zoogeographical regions of Asia and Australasia — marks the tectonic boundary between the
Eurasian and Indo-Australian plates. This continental boundary prevented the formation of land bridges and resulted in a distinct zoological distribution, with limited overlap, of most Asian and Australian fauna, with the exception of birds. Following the emergence of the circumpolar current in the mid-
Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...
era (some 15 MYA), the Australian climate became increasingly arid, giving rise to a diverse group of arid-specialised organisms, just as the wet tropical and seasonally wet areas gave rise to their own uniquely adapted species.
Mammals

Australia has a rich mammalian fossil history, as well as a variety of extant mammalian species, dominated by the marsupials, currently however there is limited taxonomic research into Australia's mammals. The fossil record shows that monotremes have been present in Australia since the
Early Cretaceous
The Early Cretaceous (geochronology, geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphy, chronostratigraphic name) is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 143.1 ...
145–99 MYA, and that
marsupial
Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...
s and placental mammals date from the
Eocene
The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...
56–34 MYA, when modern mammals first appeared in the fossil record. Although terrestrial marsupials and placental mammals did coexist in Australia in the Eocene, only the marsupials have survived to the present. Non-volant placental mammals made their reappearance in Australia in the Miocene, when Australia moved closer to
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
, and
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...
s started to appear reliably in the Late Miocene fossil record. The marsupials evolved to fill specific ecological niches, and in many cases they are physically similar to the placental mammals in
Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...
and North America that occupy similar niches, a phenomenon known as
convergent evolution
Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last comm ...
. For example, the top predator in Australia, the
thylacine
The thylacine (; binomial name ''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), also commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf, was a carnivorous marsupial that was native to the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and the islands of Tasmani ...
,
bore a striking resemblance to
canid
Canidae (; from Latin, ''canis'', "dog") is a family (biology), biological family of caniform carnivorans, constituting a clade. A member of this family is also called a canid (). The family includes three subfamily, subfamilies: the Caninae, a ...
s.
Gliding possums There are many different types of gliding possum, sometimes referred to as volplane possum, flying phalangers, or simply as gliders, endemic to Australia and New Guinea. Taxonomically, gliding possums occupy three genera.
''Acrobates'' – monotyp ...
and
flying squirrel
Flying squirrels (scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini) are a tribe (biology), tribe of 50 species of squirrels in the family (biology), family Squirrel, Sciuridae. Despite their name, they are not in fact capable of full flight i ...
s have similar adaptations enabling their arboreal lifestyle; and the
numbat
The numbat (''Myrmecobius fasciatus''), also known as the noombat or walpurti, is an insectivorous marsupial. It is diurnal and its diet consists almost exclusively of termites.
The species was once widespread across southern Australia, but i ...
and
anteaters
Anteaters are the four extant mammal species in the suborder Vermilingua (meaning "worm tongue"), commonly known for eating ants and termites. The individual species have other names in English and other languages. Together with sloths, they ar ...
are both digging insectivores. For the most part, mammals are not a highly visible part of the faunal landscape, as most species are nocturnal and many arboreal.
Monotremes and marsupials
Two of the five living species of
monotreme
Monotremes () are mammals of the order Monotremata. They are the only group of living mammals that lay eggs, rather than bearing live young. The extant monotreme species are the platypus and the four species of echidnas. Monotremes are typified ...
occur in Australia: the
platypus
The platypus (''Ornithorhynchus anatinus''), sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative or monotypi ...
and the
short-beaked echidna
The short-beaked echidna (''Tachyglossus aculeatus''), also called the short-nosed echidna, is one of four living species of echidna, and the only member of the genus ''Tachyglossus'', from Ancient Greek (), meaning "fast", and (), meaning ...
,
[Egerton, p. 36.] the other three being
echidnas
Echidnas (), sometimes known as spiny anteaters, are quill-covered monotremes (egg-laying mammals) belonging to the family Tachyglossidae , living in Australia and New Guinea. The four extant species of echidnas and the platypus are the only l ...
that only occur in New Guinea. Monotremes differ from other mammals in their methods of reproduction; in particular, they lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young.
The platypus — a
venom
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...
ous, egg-laying, duck-billed amphibious mammal — is considered to be one of the strangest creatures in the animal kingdom. When it was first presented by
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English Natural history, naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences.
Banks made his name on the European and American voyages of scientific exploration, 1766 natural-history ...
to English naturalists it was thought to be a hoax.
[Menkhorst and Knight, p. 44.] The short-beaked echidna is covered in hairy spikes with a tubular snout in the place of a mouth, and a tongue that can move in and out of the snout at a rate of 100 times a minute to capture
termite
Termites are a group of detritivore, detritophagous Eusociality, eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of Detritus, decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, Plant litter, leaf litter, and Humus, soil humus. They are dist ...
s.
[Egerton, p. 37.]
Australia has the world's largest and most diverse range of marsupial
Marsupials are a diverse group of mammals belonging to the infraclass Marsupialia. They are natively found in Australasia, Wallacea, and the Americas. One of marsupials' unique features is their reproductive strategy: the young are born in a r ...
s.[Egerton, p. 39.] Marsupials are characterised by the presence of a pouch in which they rear their young after birth.[ The carnivorous marsupials — ]Dasyuromorphia
Dasyuromorphia (, meaning "hairy tail" in Greek) is an order comprising most of the Australian carnivorous marsupials, including quolls, dunnarts, the numbat, the Tasmanian devil, and the extinct thylacine. In Australia, the exceptions include ...
— are represented by two surviving families: the Dasyuridae
The Dasyuridae are a family of marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea, including 71 extant species divided into 17 genera. Many are small and mouse-like or shrew-like, giving some of them the name marsupial mice or marsupial shrews, but th ...
with 51 members, and the Myrmecobiidae with the numbat
The numbat (''Myrmecobius fasciatus''), also known as the noombat or walpurti, is an insectivorous marsupial. It is diurnal and its diet consists almost exclusively of termites.
The species was once widespread across southern Australia, but i ...
as its sole extant species. The Tasmanian tiger was the largest Dasyuromorphia[Menkhorst and Knight, p. 46.] and the last living specimen of the family Thylacinidae
Thylacinidae is an extinct family (biology), family of carnivorous marsupials from the order Dasyuromorphia. The only species to survive into modern times was the thylacine (''Thylacinus cynocephalus''), which became Extinction, extinct in 1936.
...
died in captivity in 1936. The world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupial is the Tasmanian devil
The Tasmanian devil (''Sarcophilus harrisii''; palawa kani: ''purinina'') is a carnivorous marsupial of the family Dasyuridae. It was formerly present across mainland Australia, but became extinct there around 3,500 years ago; it is now con ...
; it is the size of a small dog and can hunt, although it is mainly a scavenger.[Egerton, p. 69.] It became extinct on the mainland some 600 years ago, and is now found only in Tasmania
Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...
.[ There are four species of ]quoll
Quolls (; genus ''Dasyurus'') are carnivorous marsupials native to Australia and New Guinea. They are primarily nocturnal, and spend most of the day in a den. Of the six species of quoll, four are found in Australia and two in New Guinea. Anot ...
, or "native cat", all of which are threatened species.[ The eastern quoll for example is believed to have been extinct on the mainland since the 1960s, though there are efforts to reintroduce it. The remainder of the Dasyuridae are referred to as "marsupial mice";][Egerton, p. 68.] most weigh less than 100 g. There are two species of marsupial mole
Marsupial moles, the Notoryctidae family, are two species of highly specialized marsupial mammals that are found in the Australian interior.
They are small burrowing marsupials that anatomically converge on fossorial placental mammals, such as ...
— order Notoryctemorphia
Notoryctidae are a family of marsupials comprising the marsupial moles and their fossil relatives. It is the only family in the order Notoryctemorphia.
Taxonomy
A fossil species in a new genus was published as '' Naraboryctes''. A new diagnos ...
— that inhabit the deserts of Western Australia. These rare, blind and earless carnivorous creatures spend most of their time underground; little is known about them.
The bandicoot
Bandicoots are a group of more than 20 species of small to medium-sized, terrestrial, largely nocturnal marsupial omnivores in the order Peramelemorphia. They are endemic to the Australia–New Guinea region, including the Bismarck Archipela ...
s and bilbies — order Peramelemorphia
The order Peramelemorphia includes the bandicoots and bilbies. All members of the order are endemic to Australia-New Guinea and most have the characteristic bandicoot shape: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, very ...
— are marsupial omnivore
An omnivore () is an animal that regularly consumes significant quantities of both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize t ...
s. There are seven extant species in Australia, most of which are endangered.[Menkhorst and Knight, pp. 80–84.] These small creatures share several characteristic physical features: a plump, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, large upright ears, long, thin legs, and a thin tail.[ The evolutionary origin of this group is unclear, because they share characteristics from both carnivorous and herbivorous marsupials.
Marsupials with two front teeth (diprotodont) on the lower jaw and ]syndactyly
Syndactyly is a condition wherein two or more digits are fused together. It occurs normally in some mammals, but is an unusual condition in humans. The term is .
Classification
Syndactyly can be simple or complex.
* In simple syndactyly, adja ...
are classified in the order Diprotodontia
Diprotodontia (, from Greek language, Greek "two forward teeth") is the largest extant order (biology), order of marsupials, with about 155 species, including the kangaroos, Wallaby, wallabies, Phalangeriformes, possums, koala, wombats, and many ...
, and further into the suborders Vombatiformes, Macropodiformes
The Macropodiformes , also known as macropods, are one of the three suborders of the large marsupial order Diprotodontia. They may in fact be nested within one of the suborders, Phalangeriformes. Kangaroos, wallabies and allies, bettongs, p ...
and Phalangerida. The Vombatiformes include the koala and the three species of wombat
Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials of the family Vombatidae that are native to Australia. Living species are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are ...
. One of Australia's best-known marsupials, the koala
The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...
is an arboreal species that feeds on the leaves of various species of eucalyptus
''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...
.[Menkhorst and Knight, p. 86.] Wombats, on the other hand, live on the ground and feed on grasses
Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...
, sedges
The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large; botanists have described some 5,500 known species in about 90 generathe largest being the "true sedges" (genu ...
and root
In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
s.[ Wombats use their diprotodont teeth and powerful claws to dig extensive burrow systems; they are mainly ]crepuscular
In zoology, a crepuscular animal is one that is active primarily during the twilight period, being matutinal (active during dawn), vespertine (biology), vespertine/vespertinal (active during dusk), or both. This is distinguished from diurnalit ...
and nocturnal
Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatur ...
.[
The Phalangerida includes six families and 26 species of ]possum
Possum may refer to:
Animals
* Didelphimorphia, or (o)possums, an order of marsupials native to the Americas
** Didelphis, a genus of marsupials within Didelphimorphia
*** Common opossum, native to Central and South America
*** Virginia opossum ...
and three families with 53 species of macropod. The possums are a diverse group of arboreal marsupials and vary in size from the little pygmy possum, weighing just 7 g, to the cat-sized common ringtail and brushtail possums. The sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose
Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...
and squirrel gliders are common species of gliding possum, found in the eucalypt forests of eastern Australia, while the feathertail glider
The feathertail glider (''Acrobates pygmaeus''), also known as the pygmy gliding possum, pygmy glider, pygmy phalanger, flying phalanger and flying mouse, is a species of marsupial native to eastern Australia. It is the world's smallest gliding ...
is the smallest glider species. The gliding possums have membranes called "patagia" that extend from the fifth finger of their forelimb back to the first toe of their hind foot. These membranes, when outstretched, allow them to glide between trees.
The macropods are divided into three families: the Hypsiprymnodontidae, with the musky rat-kangaroo as its only member; the Potoroidae
Potoroidae is a family of marsupials, small Australian animals known as bettongs, potoroos, and rat-kangaroos. All are rabbit-sized, brown, jumping marsupials and resemble a large rodent or a very small wallaby.
Taxonomy
The potoroids are s ...
, with 11 species; and the Macropodidae
Macropodidae is a Family (biology), family of marsupials that includes kangaroos, Wallaby, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, quokkas, and several other groups. These genera are allied to the suborder Macropodiformes, containing ...
, with 45 species. Macropods are found in all Australian environments except alpine areas. The Potoroidae include the bettongs, potaroos and rat-kangaroos, small species that make nests and carry plant material with their tails. The Macropodiae include kangaroo
Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
s, wallabies
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...
and associated species; size varies widely within this family. Most macropods have large hind legs and long, narrow hind feet, with a distinctive arrangement of four toes, and powerfully muscled tail
The tail is the elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...
s, which they use to hop around.[Egerton, p. 42.] The musky rat-kangaroo is the smallest macropod and the only species that is quadrupedal not bipedal, while the male red kangaroo
The red kangaroo (''Osphranter rufus'') is the largest of all kangaroos, the largest terrestrial mammal native to Australia, and the Largest mammals#Marsupials (Marsupialia), largest extant marsupial. It is found across mainland Australia, exce ...
is the largest, reaching a height of about 2 m and weighing up to 85 kg.
Placental mammals
Australia has indigenous placental mammals from two orders: the bats — order Chiroptera — represented by six families; and the mice and rats — order Rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...
ia, family Muridae
The Muridae, or murids, are either the largest or second-largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 870 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia.
...
. There are only two endemic genera
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...
of bats,[ although 7% of the world's bat species live in Australia. Rodents first arrived in Australia 5–10 MYA,][ undergoing a wide radiation to produce the species collectively known as the "old endemic" rodents.][Egerton, p. 93.] The old endemics are represented by 14 extant genera. A million years ago, the rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include '' Neotoma'' (pack rats), '' Bandicota'' (bandicoo ...
entered Australia from New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
and evolved into seven species of ''Rattus'', collectively called the "new endemics".[
Since human settlement many additional ]placental
Placental mammals (infraclass Placentalia ) are one of the three extant subdivisions of the class Mammalia, the other two being Monotremata and Marsupialia. Placentalia contains the vast majority of extant mammals, which are partly distinguished ...
mammals have been introduced to Australia and are now feral
A feral (; ) animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in som ...
.[ The first placental mammal introduced to Australia was the ]dingo
The dingo (either included in the species ''Canis familiaris'', or considered one of the following independent taxa: ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or ''Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal (phylogenetics), basal) lineage ...
.[ Fossil evidence suggests that people from the north brought the dingo to Australia about 5000 years ago. When Europeans settled Australia they intentionally released many species into the wild including the ]red fox
The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...
, European hare
The European hare (''Lepus europaeus''), also known as the brown hare, is a species of hare native to Europe and parts of Asia. It is among the largest hare species and is adapted to temperate, open country. Hares are herbivorous and feed mainly ...
, and the European rabbit
The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal and Andorra) and southwestern France. It is the only extant species in the genus ''Oryctolagus''. The European rab ...
.[ Other domestic species have escaped and over time have produced wild populations including the ]banteng
The banteng (''Bos javanicus''; ), also known as tembadau, is a species of wild Bovinae, bovine found in Southeast Asia.
The head-and-body length is between . Wild banteng are typically larger and heavier than their Bali cattle, domesticated ...
, cat
The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
, fallow deer
Fallow deer is the common name for species of deer in the genus ''Dama'' of subfamily Cervinae. There are two living species, the European fallow deer (''Dama dama''), native to Europe and Anatolia, and the Persian fallow deer (''Dama mesopotamic ...
, red deer
The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...
, sambar deer
The sambar (''Rusa unicolor'') is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent, South China and Southeast Asia that is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008. Populations have declined substantially due to severe huntin ...
, rusa deer, chital
The chital or cheetal (''Axis axis''; ), also called spotted deer, chital deer and axis deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. It was first described by Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben in 1777. A moderate-sized deer, mal ...
, hog deer
''Axis'' is a genus of deer occurring in South and Southeast Asia. As presently defined by most authorities, four species are placed in the genus. Three of the four species are called hog deer. The genus name is a word mentioned in Pliny the Elde ...
, horse
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...
, donkey
The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domes ...
, pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), also called swine (: swine) or hog, is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is named the domestic pig when distinguishing it from other members of the genus '' Sus''. Some authorities cons ...
, goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
, water buffalo
The water buffalo (''Bubalus bubalis''), also called domestic water buffalo, Asian water buffalo and Asiatic water buffalo, is a large bovid originating in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Today, it is also kept in Italy, the Balkans ...
, and the camel
A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...
. Only three species of non-native placental mammal were not deliberately introduced to Australia: the house mouse
The house mouse (''Mus musculus'') is a small mammal of the rodent family Muridae, characteristically having a pointed snout, large rounded ears, and a long and almost hairless tail. It is one of the most abundant species of the genus '' Mus''. A ...
, black rat
The black rat (''Rattus rattus''), also known as the roof rat, ship rat, or house rat, is a common long-tailed rodent of the stereotypical rat genus ''Rattus'', in the subfamily Murinae. It likely originated in the Indian subcontinent, but is n ...
and the brown rat
The brown rat (''Rattus norvegicus''), also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest Muroidea, muroids, it is a brown or grey ...
.
Forty-six marine mammals from the infraorder Cetacea
Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...
are found in Australian coastal waters. Since the majority of these species have global distribution, some authors do not consider them to be Australian species. There are eleven species of baleen whale
Baleen whales (), also known as whalebone whales, are marine mammals of the order (biology), parvorder Mysticeti in the infraorder Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises), which use baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their mouths to sieve plankt ...
present; humpback whale
The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...
s, southern right whale
The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20� ...
s, dwarf minke whale
The minke whale (), or lesser rorqual, is a species complex of baleen whale. The two species of minke whale are the common (or northern) minke whale and the Antarctic (or southern) minke whale. The minke whale was first described by the Danish na ...
s and pygmy blue whale
The pygmy blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda'') is a subspecies of the blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') found in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Pacific Ocean.
Taxonomy
The pygmy blue whale formed from a founder group of An ...
s are more commonly observed. There are 37 species of toothed whale, which include all six genera of the family Ziphiidae
Beaked whales (systematic name Ziphiidae) are a family of cetaceans noted as being one of the least-known groups of mammals because of their deep-sea habitat, reclusive behavior and apparent low abundance. Only three or four of the 24 existing s ...
, and 21 species of oceanic dolphin
Oceanic dolphins or Delphinidae are a widely distributed family of dolphins that live in the sea. Close to forty extant species are recognised. They include several big species whose common names contain "whale" rather than "dolphin", such as the ...
, including the Australian snubfin dolphin
The Australian snubfin dolphin (''Orcaella heinsohni'') is a dolphin found off the northern coasts of Australia. It closely resembles the Irrawaddy dolphin (of the same genus, '' Orcaella'') and was not described as a separate species until 200 ...
, a species first described in 2005. Some oceanic dolphins, such as the orca
The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopol ...
, can be found in all waters around the continent; others, such as the Irrawaddy dolphin
The Irrawaddy dolphin (''Orcaella brevirostris'') is a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin found in scattered subpopulations near sea coasts and in estuaries and rivers in parts of the Bay of Bengal and Southeast Asia. It closely resembles the ...
, are confined to the warm northern waters. The dugong
The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest ...
is an endangered marine species that inhabits the waters of north-eastern and north-western Australia, particularly the Torres Strait
The Torres Strait (), also known as Zenadh Kes ( Kalaw Lagaw Ya#Phonology 2, �zen̪ad̪ kes, is a strait between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, ...
.[ It can grow up to 3 m long and weigh as much as 400 kg.][ The dugong is the only herbivorous marine mammal in Australia, feeding on ]sea grass
Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine (ocean), marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four Family (biology), families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and ...
in coastal areas.[ The destruction of sea grass beds is a threat to the survival of this species.][ Eleven species of seal — family ]Pinniped
Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely range (biology), distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammals. They comprise the extant taxon, extant families Odobenidae (whose onl ...
ia — live off the southern coast.
Birds
Australia and its territories are home to around 800 species of bird; 45% of these are endemic to Australia. The fossil record of birds in Australia is patchy; however, there are records of the ancestors of contemporary species as early as the Late Oligocene
The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale
The geologic time scale or geological time scale (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the pro ...
. Birds with a Gondwanan history include the flightless ratite
Ratites () are a polyphyletic group consisting of all birds within the infraclass Palaeognathae that lack keels and cannot fly. They are mostly large, long-necked, and long-legged, the exception being the kiwi, which is also the only nocturnal ...
s (the emu
The emu (; ''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is a species of flightless bird endemism, endemic to Australia, where it is the Tallest extant birds, tallest native bird. It is the only extant taxon, extant member of the genus ''Dromaius'' and the ...
and southern cassowary
The southern cassowary (''Casuarius casuarius''), also known as double-wattled cassowary, Australian cassowary, or two-wattled cassowary, is a large Flightless bird, flightless black bird, found in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and northeastern ...
), megapode
The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy leg ...
s (the malleefowl
The malleefowl (''Leipoa ocellata'') is a stocky ground-dwelling Australian bird about the size of a domestic chicken (to which it is distantly related). It is notable for the large nesting mounds constructed by the males and lack of parental ca ...
and Australian brush-turkey), and a huge group of endemic parrot
Parrots (Psittaciformes), also known as psittacines (), are birds with a strong curved beak, upright stance, and clawed feet. They are classified in four families that contain roughly 410 species in 101 genus (biology), genera, found mostly in ...
s, order Psittaciformes. Australian parrots comprise a sixth of the world's parrots, including many cockatoo
A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea ( true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up t ...
s and galah
The galah (; ''Eolophus roseicapilla''), less commonly known as the pink and grey cockatoo or rose-breasted cockatoo, is an Australian species of cockatoo and the only member of the genus ''Eolophus''. The galah is adapted to a wide variety of m ...
s. The kookaburra
Kookaburras (pronounced ) are terrestrial animal, terrestrial tree kingfishers of the genus ''Dacelo'' native to Australia and New Guinea, which grow to between in length and weigh around . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri language, Wira ...
is the largest species of the kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
family, known for its call, which sounds uncannily like loud, echoing human laughter. The Brolga
The brolga (''Antigone rubicunda''), formerly known as the native companion, is a bird in the crane (bird), crane family. It has also been given the name Australian crane, a term coined in 1865 by well-known ornithology, ornithologist John Gou ...
is the only crane exclusive to Australia, and it shares habitat with the more widely distributed Sarus Cranes.The passerine
A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped') which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...
s of Australia, also known as songbirds or perching birds, include wren
Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...
s, robins, the magpie group, thornbills, pardalotes, the huge honeyeater
The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Gui ...
family, treecreepers
The treecreepers are a family (biology), family, Certhiidae, of small passerine Aves, birds, widespread in wooded regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The family contains nine species in one genus, ''Certhia''. Their plumage is dull-coloured. As t ...
, lyrebird
A lyrebird is either of two species of ground-dwelling Australian birds that compose the genus ''Menura'', and the family Menuridae. They are most notable for their impressive ability to mimic natural and artificial sounds from their environme ...
s, birds of paradise and bowerbird
Bowerbirds () make up the bird family Ptilonorhynchidae. They are renowned for their unique courtship behaviour, where males build a structure and decorate it with sticks and brightly coloured objects in an attempt to attract a mate.
The family ...
s. The satin bowerbird
The satin bowerbird (''Ptilonorhynchus violaceus'') is a species of passerine bird in the bowerbird family Ptilonorhynchidae that is endemic to eastern Australia. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Ptilonorhynchus''.
Taxonomy
The sati ...
has attracted the interest of evolutionary psychologists; it has a complex courtship ritual in which the male creates a bower filled with blue, shiny items to woo mates.
Relatively recent colonists from Eurasia
Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...
are swallow
The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...
s, lark
Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occ ...
s, thrushes, cisticola
__NOTOC__
Cisticolas (pronounced ''sis-TIC-olas'') are a genus of very small insectivorous birds formerly classified in the Old World warbler family Sylviidae, but now usually considered to be in the separate family Cisticolidae, along with other ...
s, sunbird
Sunbirds and spiderhunters make up the family Nectariniidae of passerine birds. They are small, slender passerines from the Old World, usually with downward-curved bills. Many are brightly coloured, often with iridescent feathers, particularly i ...
s, and some raptors, including the large wedge-tailed eagle
The wedge-tailed eagle (''Aquila audax'') also known as the eaglehawk, is the largest bird of prey in the continent of Australia. It is also found in southern New Guinea to the north and is distributed as far south as the state of Tasmania. A ...
. A number of bird species have been introduced by humans; some, like the European goldfinch
The European goldfinch or simply the goldfinch (''Carduelis carduelis'') is a small passerine bird in the finch Family (biology), family that is native to the Palearctic zone in Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia. It has been introduced t ...
and greenfinch
The greenfinches are small passerine birds in the genus ''Chloris'' in the subfamily Carduelinae within the Fringillidae. The species have a Eurasian distribution except for the European greenfinch, which also occurs in North Africa.
These fin ...
, coexist happily with Australian species, while others, such as the common starling
The common starling (''Sturnus vulgaris''), also known simply as the starling in Great Britain and Ireland, and as European starling in North America, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. It is about long and ha ...
, common blackbird
The common blackbird (''Turdus merula'') is a species of true thrush. It is also called the Eurasian blackbird (especially in North America, to distinguish it from the unrelated New World blackbirds), or simply the blackbird. It breeds in Europ ...
, house sparrow
The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the Old World sparrow, sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pa ...
and Indian mynah, are destructive of some native bird species and thus destabilise the native ecosystem.
About 200 species of seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...
live on the Australian coast, including many species of migratory seabird. Australia is at the southern end of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway for migratory water birds, which extends from Far-East Russia and Alaska through Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
to Australia and New Zealand. About two million birds travel this route to and from Australia each year. One very common large seabird is the Australian pelican
The Australian pelican (''Pelecanus conspicillatus'') is a large waterbird in the family Pelecanidae, widespread on the inland and coastal waters of Australia and New Guinea, also in Fiji, parts of Indonesia and as a vagrant in New Zealand. It ...
, which can be found in most waterways in Australia. The Australian little penguin is the only species of penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...
that breeds on mainland Australia.
Amphibians and reptiles
Australia has four families of native frogs and one introduced toad
Toad (also known as a hoptoad) is a common name for certain frogs, especially of the family Bufonidae, that are characterized by dry, leathery skin, short legs, and large bumps covering the parotoid glands.
In popular culture (folk taxonomy ...
, the cane toad
The cane toad (''Rhinella marina''), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, Terrestrial animal, terrestrial true toad native to South America, South and mainland Central America, but which has been Introduced spe ...
. In 1935 the cane toad was introduced to Australia in a failed attempt to control pests in sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
crops. It has since become a devastating pest, spreading across northern Australia. As well as competing with native insectivores for food, the cane toad produces a venom that is toxic to native fauna,[Egerton, p. 389.] as well as to humans. The Myobatrachidae
Myobatrachidae, commonly known as Australian ground frogs or Australian water frogs, is a family of frogs found in Australia and New Guinea. Members of this family vary greatly in size, from species less than long, to the second-largest frog in ...
, or southern frogs, are Australia's largest group of frogs, with 112 species classified into anywhere from 17 to 22 genera. A notable member of this group is the colourful and endangered Corroboree frog. The tree frog
A tree frog (or treefrog) is any species of frog that spends a major portion of its lifespan in trees, known as an arboreal state. Several lineages of frogs among the Neobatrachia suborder have given rise to treefrogs, although they are not clos ...
s, from family Hylidae, are common in high rainfall areas on the north and east coasts; there are 77 Australian species from three genera. The 18 species from two genera of the Microhylidae
The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family (biology), family of frogs. The 683 species are in 57 genera and 11 subfamilies.
Evolution
A molecular phylogenetic study by van der Meijden, et al. ...
frogs are restricted to the rainforests of northern Australia and nearby habitats; the smallest species, the scanty frog, is from this family. There is a single species from the world's dominant frog group, family Ranidae – the Australian wood frog – which only occurs in the Queensland rainforests.[Egerton, p. 388.] As elsewhere, there has been a precipitous decline in Australia's frog populations in recent years.[ Although the full reasons for the decline are uncertain, it can be at least partly attributed to the fatal amphibian ]fungal
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one of the tradit ...
disease chytridiomycosis.[Egerton, p. 385.] Another theory for the decline might be, as research shows, that species from the Southern Hemisphere are on average 4.6 million years old, compared to an average 2.9 million years old for the Northern Hemisphere: Researchers believe this age difference is because of the history of severe ice ages in the Northern Hemisphere, which may drive older species to extinction.
Australia has two species of crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include ...
. The saltwater crocodile
The saltwater crocodile (''Crocodylus porosus'') is a crocodilian native to saltwater habitats, brackish wetlands and freshwater rivers from India's east coast across Southeast Asia and the Sundaland to northern Australia and Micronesia. It ha ...
, known colloquially as the "salty", is the largest living crocodile species; reaching over 7 m, and weighing over 1,000 kg,[Wood, The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. Sterling Pub Co Inc (1983), ] they can and do kill people.[Egerton, p. 298.] They live on the coast and in the freshwater rivers and wetlands of northern Australia, and they are farmed for their meat and leather.[ ]Freshwater crocodile
The freshwater crocodile (''Crocodylus johnstoni)'', also known Common name, commonly as the Australian freshwater crocodile, Johnstone's crocodile, and the freshie, is a species of crocodile native to the northern regions of Australia. Unlike ...
s, found only in northern Australia, are not considered dangerous to humans.[
The Australian coast is visited by six species of ]sea turtle
Sea turtles (superfamily Chelonioidea), sometimes called marine turtles, are reptiles of the order Testudines and of the suborder Cryptodira. The seven existing species of sea turtles are the flatback, green, hawksbill, leatherback, loggerh ...
: the flatback, green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
, hawksbill, olive ridley, loggerhead and the leatherback sea turtles; all are protected in Australian waters. There are 35 species of Australian freshwater turtle
Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...
s from eight genera of the family Chelidae
Chelidae is one of three living families of the turtle suborder Pleurodira, and are commonly called Austro-South American side-neck turtles. The family is distributed in Australia, New Guinea, parts of Indonesia, and throughout most of South Amer ...
.Turtle Taxonomy Working Group The Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (TTWG) is an informal working group of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group (TFTSG). It is composed of a number of leading turtle taxonomists, with varying participation by individual partici ...
an Dijk PP, Iverson JB, Rhodin AGJ, Shaffer HB, Bour R 2014. Turtles of the World, 7th edition: annotated checklist of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution with maps, and conservation status. In: Rhodin AGJ, Pritchard PCH, van Dijk PP, Saumure RA, Buhlmann KA, Iverson JB, Mittermeier RA (Editors). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group
''Chelonian Research Monographs'' 5 (7): 000.329–479
, doi:10.3854/ crm.5.000.checklist.v7.2014. The pig-nosed turtle
The pig-nosed turtle (''Carettochelys insculpta''), also known as the Fly River turtle, the pitted-shelled turtle, and the Warrajan is a species of turtle which is native to northern Australia and southern New Guinea. It is the only living mem ...
is the only Australian turtle not of that family. Australia is the only continent without any living species of land tortoises of the Testudinoidea superfamily besides Antarctica.
Australia is the only continent where venomous snakes outnumber their non-venomous cousins. Australian snakes belong to seven families. Of these, the most venomous species, including the fierce snake, eastern brown snake, taipan and eastern tiger snake are from the family Elapidae
Elapidae (, commonly known as elapids , from , variant of "sea-fish") is a family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus '' Emydocephalus ...
. Of the 200 species of elapid, 106 are found in Australia and 86 are found only in Australia. Thirty-three sea snake
Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are Elapidae, elapid snakes that inhabit Marine (ocean), marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Sea krait, Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes ...
s from family Hydrophiidae inhabit Australia's northern waters; many are extremely venomous. Two species of sea snake from the Acrochordidae
The Acrochordidae, commonly known as wart snakes, Java wart snakes, file snakes, elephant trunk snakes, or dogface snakes are a monogeneric Family (biology), family created for the genus ''Acrochordus''. This is a group of basal aquatic snakes fo ...
also occur in Australian waters. Australia has only 11 species from the world's most significant snake family Colubridae
Colubridae (, commonly known as colubrids , from , 'snake') is a family of snakes. With 249 genera, it is the largest snake family. The earliest fossil species of the family date back to the Late Eocene epoch, with earlier origins suspected. C ...
; none are endemic, and they are considered to be relatively recent arrivals from Asia. There are 15 python species and 45 species of insectivorous blind snake.
There are more species of snake in Darwin than any other Australian state capital, with 34 non-marine snake species found in the region, of which 23 have been recorded by professional snake catchers in Darwin itself. Fortunately for the citizens of Darwin, a far smaller proportion of these snakes are highly venomous than is typically found in other cities, due to the low numbers of front-fanged elapid species and dominance of relatively harmless pythons and colubrid species.
There are more than 700 species of lizards in Australia with representatives of five families. There are over 130 species in 20 genera of gecko
Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates. They range from .
Geckos are unique among lizards ...
found throughout the Australian continent. The Pygopodidae
Pygopodidae, commonly known as snake-lizards, or flap-footed lizards, are a Family (biology), family of Legless lizard, legless lizards with reduced or absent limbs, and are a type of gecko. The 47 species are placed in two subfamilies and eight ...
is a family of limbless lizards endemic to the Australian region; all 39 species from seven genera occur in Australia. The Agamidae
Agamidae is a family containing 582 species in 64 genera of iguanian lizards indigenous to Africa, Asia, Australia, and a few locations in Southern Europe. Many species are commonly called dragons or dragon lizards.
Overview
Phylogenetically ...
or dragon lizards are represented by 70 species in 14 genera, including the thorny devil, bearded dragon and frill-necked lizard. There are 30 species of monitor lizard
Monitor lizards are lizards in the genus ''Varanus,'' the only extant genus in the family Varanidae. They are native to Africa, Asia, and Oceania, and West African Nile monitor, one species is also found in south America as an invasive species. A ...
, family Varanidae, in Australia, where they are commonly known as goanna
A goanna is any one of several species of lizard of the genus ''Monitor lizard, Varanus'' found in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Around 70 species of ''Varanus'' are known, 25 of which are found in Australia. This varied group of carnivorous r ...
s. The largest Australian monitor is the perentie, which can reach up to 2 m in length. There are about 450 species of skink
Skinks are a type of lizard belonging to the family (biology), family Scincidae, a family in the Taxonomic rank, infraorder Scincomorpha. With more than 1,500 described species across 100 different taxonomic genera, the family Scincidae is one o ...
from more than 40 genera, comprising more than 50% of the total Australian lizard fauna; this group includes the blue-tongued lizards.
Fish
More than 5,000 species of fish inhabit Australia's waterways; of these, 24% are endemic. However, because of the relative scarcity of freshwater waterways, Australia has only about 300 species of freshwater fish. Two families of freshwater fish have ancient origins: the arowana
Arowanas are freshwater bony fish of the subfamily Osteoglossinae, also known as bony tongues (the latter name is now often reserved for Arapaiminae). In this family of fish, the head is bony and the elongated body is covered by large, heavy sca ...
or bonytongues, and the Queensland lungfish
The Australian lungfish (''Neoceratodus forsteri''), also known as the Queensland lungfish, Burnett salmon and barramunda, is the only surviving member of the family Neoceratodontidae. It is one of only six extant lungfish species in the world. ...
. The Queensland lungfish is the most primitive of the lungfish
Lungfish are freshwater vertebrates belonging to the class Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining ancestral characteristics within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and ancestral structures within Sarcopterygii, inc ...
, having evolved before Australia separated from Gondwana. One of the smallest freshwater fish, peculiar to the southwest of Western Australia, is the salamanderfish, which can survive desiccation in the dry season by burrowing into mud. Other families with a potentially Gondwanan origin include the Retropinnidae, Galaxiidae
The Galaxiidae are a family of mostly small freshwater fish in the Southern Hemisphere. The majority live in Southern Australia or New Zealand, but some are found in South Africa, southern South America, Lord Howe Island, New Caledonia, and th ...
, Aplochitonidae
The Aplochitoninae, formerly the family Aplochitonidae, are a subfamily of ray-finned fish
Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vert ...
and Percichthyidae. Apart from the ancient freshwater species, 70% of Australia's freshwater fish have affinities with tropical Indo-Pacific marine species that have adapted to freshwater. These species include freshwater lamprey
Lampreys (sometimes inaccurately called lamprey eels) are a group of Agnatha, jawless fish comprising the order (biology), order Petromyzontiformes , sole order in the Class (biology), class Petromyzontida. The adult lamprey is characterize ...
s, Herrings, catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...
, rainbowfish
Rainbowfishes are small, colourful freshwater fishes belonging to the Family (biology), family Melanotaeniidae, found in northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea (including islands in Cenderawasih Bay and Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia), Sula ...
, and some 50 species of gudgeon
A gudgeon is a socket-like, cylindrical (i.e., ''female'') fitting attached to one component to enable a pivoting or hinging connection to a second component. The second component carries a pintle fitting, the male counterpart to the gudgeon, ...
, including the sleepy cod. Native freshwater game fish include the barramundi
The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the I ...
, Murray cod
The Murray cod (''Maccullochella peelii'') is a large Australian predatory freshwater fish of the genus '' Maccullochella'' in the family Percichthyidae.Dianne J. Bray & Vanessa J. Thompson (2011Murray Cod, Maccullochella peelii Fishes of Au ...
, and golden perch. Two species of endangered freshwater shark Freshwater sharks are sharks that live in freshwater environments. While the majority of sharks are solely marine, a small number of shark species have adapted to live in freshwater.
The river sharks (of the genus ''Glyphis'') live in freshwater a ...
are found in the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
.
Several exotic freshwater fish species, including brown
Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black.
In the ...
, brook and rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...
, Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
and Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Oncorhynchus, Pacific salmon. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other vernacular names for the species include king salmon, quinn ...
, redfin perch, common carp
The common carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), also known as European carp, Eurasian carp, or simply carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Ark ...
, and mosquitofish, have been introduced to Australian waterways. The mosquitofish is a particularly aggressive species known for harassing and nipping the fins of other fish. It has been linked to declines and localised extirpations of several small native fish species. The introduced trout species have had serious negative impacts on a number of upland native fish species including trout cod, Macquarie perch and mountain galaxias species as well as other upland fauna such as the spotted tree frog. The common carp is strongly implicated in the dramatic loss in waterweed, decline of small native fish species and permanently elevated levels of turbidity in the Murray-Darling Basin of south west Australia.
Most of Australia's fish species are marine, and 75% live in tropical marine environments. This is partly due to Australia's huge marine territory, covering 9 million km2. Groups of interest include the moray eel
Moray eels, or Muraenidae (), are a family (biology), family of eels whose members are found worldwide. There are approximately 200 species in 15 genera which are almost exclusively Marine (ocean), marine, but several species are regu ...
s and squirrelfish
Holocentrinae is a subfamily of Holocentridae containing 40 recognized species and one proposed species. Its members are typically known as squirrelfish and all are nocturnal. All three genera in the subfamily are found in the Atlantic and ''Ho ...
, as well as the pipefish and seahorses, whose males incubate their partner's eggs in a specialised pouch.[ There are 80 species of ]grouper
Groupers are a diverse group of marine ray-finned fish in the family Epinephelidae, in the order Perciformes.
Groupers were long considered a subfamily of the seabasses in Serranidae, but are now treated as distinct. Not all members of this f ...
in Australian waters, including one of the world's biggest bony fish
Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a Biodiversity, diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondricht ...
, the giant grouper
The giant grouper (''Epinephelus lanceolatus''), also known as the Queensland groper (grouper), brindle grouper or mottled-brown sea bass, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the fa ...
, which can grow as large as 2.7 m and weigh up to 400 kg. The trevally
The Carangidae are a family of ray-finned fish that includes the jacks, pompanos, jack mackerels, runners, trevallies, and scads. It is the largest of the six families included within the order Carangiformes. Some authorities classify it as the ...
, a group of 50 species of silver schooling fish, and the snappers are popular species for commercial fishing. The Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
supports a huge variety of small- and medium-sized reef fish, including the damselfish
Damselfish are those fish within the subfamilies Abudefdufinae, Chrominae, Lepidozyginae, Pomacentrinae, and Stegastinae within the family Pomacentridae.
Most species within this group are relatively small, although the four largest speci ...
, butterflyfish
The butterflyfish are a group of conspicuous tropical ocean, marine fish of the family Chaetodontidae; the bannerfish and coralfish are also included in this group. The approximately 129 species in 12 genera are found mostly on the reefs of the ...
, angelfish, gobies
Gobiidae or gobies is a family of bony fish in the order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising over 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typically less than in length, and the fam ...
, cardinalfish
Cardinalfishes are a family, Apogonidae, of ray-finned fishes found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans; they are chiefly marine, but some species are found in brackish water and a few (notably '' Glossamia'') are found in fresh water. A ...
, wrasse
The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine ray-finned fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into nine subgroups or tribes.
They are typically small, ...
es, triggerfish
Triggerfish are about 40 species of often brightly colored marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Balistidae. Often marked by lines and spots, they inhabit tropical and subtropical oceans throughout the world, with the greatest speci ...
and surgeonfish
Acanthuridae are a family (biology), family of ray-finned fish which includes surgeonfishes, tangs, and Naso (fish), unicornfishes. The family includes about 86 Extant taxon, extant species of ocean, marine fish living in tropical seas, usually ...
. There are several venomous fish, among them several species of stonefish
''Synanceia'' is a genus of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Synanceiinae, the stonefish, which is Taxonomy (biology), classified within the Family (biology), family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfish and relatives. Stone ...
and pufferfish
Tetraodontidae is a family of marine and freshwater fish in the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowers, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...
and the red lionfish
The red lionfish (''Pterois volitans'') is a venomous coral reef fish in the family Scorpaenidae, order Scorpaeniformes. It is mainly native to the Indo-Pacific region, but has become an invasive species in the Caribbean Sea, as well as along the ...
, all of which have toxins that can kill humans. There are 11 venomous species of stingray
Stingrays are a group of sea Batoidea, rays, a type of cartilaginous fish. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae (deepwate ...
, the largest of which is the smooth stingray. The barracuda
A barracuda is a large, predatory, ray-finned, saltwater fish of the genus ''Sphyraena'', the only genus in the family Sphyraenidae, which was named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1815. It is found in tropical and subtropical oceans worldw ...
s are one of the reef's largest species. However, large reef fish should not be eaten for fear of ciguatera
Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP), also known as ciguatera, is a foodborne illness caused by eating tropical reef fish contaminated with ciguatoxins. Such individual fish are said to be ciguatoxic. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, numbness ...
poisoning.
Shark
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...
s inhabit all the coastal waters and estuarine habitats of Australia's coast. There are 166 species, including 30 species of requiem shark, 32 of catshark, six of wobbegong shark, and 40 of dogfish shark. There are three species from the family Heterodontidae: the Port Jackson shark
The Port Jackson shark (''Heterodontus portusjacksoni'') is a nocturnal, oviparous (egg laying) type of bullhead shark of the family (biology) , family Bullhead shark , Heterodontidae, found in the coastal region of southern Australia, including ...
, the zebra bullhead shark and the crested bullhead shark. In 2004, there were 12 unprovoked shark attacks in Australia, of which two were fatal. Only 3 species of shark pose a significant threat to humans: the bull shark
The bull shark (''Carcharhinus leucas''), also known as the Zambezi shark (informally zambi) in Africa and Lake Nicaragua shark in Nicaragua, is a species of requiem shark commonly found worldwide in warm, shallow waters along coasts and in riv ...
, the tiger shark
The tiger shark (''Galeocerdo cuvier'') is a species of ground shark, and the only extant member of the genus '' Galeocerdo'' and family Galeocerdonidae. It is a large apex predator, with females capable of attaining a length of over . Popula ...
and the great white shark
The great white shark (''Carcharodon carcharias''), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is a species of large Lamniformes, mackerel shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major ocea ...
. Some popular beaches in Queensland and New South Wales
New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
are protected by shark netting, a method that has reduced the population of both dangerous and harmless shark species through accidental entanglement. The overfishing of sharks has also significantly reduced shark numbers in Australian waters, and several species are now endangered. A megamouth shark was found on a Perth
Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
beach in 1988; very little is known about this species, but this discovery may indicate the presence of the species in Australian coastal waters.
Invertebrates
Of the estimated 200,000 animal species in Australia, about 96% are invertebrates. While the full extent of invertebrate diversity is uncertain, 90% of insect
Insects (from Latin ') are Hexapoda, hexapod invertebrates of the class (biology), class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (Insect morphology#Head, head, ...
s and molluscs
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...
are considered endemic. Invertebrates occupy many ecological niches and are important in all ecosystems as decomposers, pollinators, and food sources. The largest group of invertebrates is the insects, comprising 75% of Australia's known species of animals. The most diverse insect orders are the Coleoptera
Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...
, with 28,200 species of beetle
Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...
s and weevil
Weevils are beetles belonging to the superfamily Curculionoidea, known for their elongated snouts. They are usually small – less than in length – and herbivorous. Approximately 97,000 species of weevils are known. They belong to several fa ...
s, the Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...
with 20,816 species including butterflies
Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...
and moth
Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...
s, and around 14,800 species of Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera is a large order of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. Over 150,000 living species of Hymenoptera have been described, in addition to over 2,000 extinct ones. Many of the species are parasitic.
Females typi ...
,[CSIRO Entomology: Insects and their allie]
Insects and their allies
including the ant
Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...
s, bees and wasp
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...
s. Order Diptera
Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advance ...
, which includes the flies
Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwin ...
and mosquito
Mosquitoes, the Culicidae, are a Family (biology), family of small Diptera, flies consisting of 3,600 species. The word ''mosquito'' (formed by ''Musca (fly), mosca'' and diminutive ''-ito'') is Spanish and Portuguese for ''little fly''. Mos ...
es, comprises 7,786 species. Order Hemiptera
Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising more than 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from ...
, including bugs, aphids and hoppers, comprises 5,650 species; and there are 2,827 species of order Orthoptera
Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – gras ...
, including grasshopper
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grassh ...
s, cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
s and katydids. Introduced species that pose a significant threat to native species include the European wasp, the red fire ant, the yellow crazy ant and feral honeybees
A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the cur ...
which compete with native bees.
Australia has a wide variety of arachnid
Arachnids are arthropods in the Class (biology), class Arachnida () of the subphylum Chelicerata. Arachnida includes, among others, spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites, pseudoscorpions, opiliones, harvestmen, Solifugae, camel spiders, Amblypygi, wh ...
s, including 78 spider families with 79 species of spider familiar enough to have common names. There are numerous highly venomous species, including the notorious Sydney funnel-web and allied mygalomorphs, whose bites can be deadly. The redback spider
The redback spider (''Latrodectus hasselti''), also known as the Australian black widow, is a species of highly venomous spider believed to originate in Australia, but which is now found in Southeast Asia and New Zealand. It has also been fo ...
was thought to be deadly but redback bites are no longer thought to be life-threatening, as the lack of deaths since 1956 was thought to be due to the development of an anti-venom which has since been shown to be no better than placebo. There are thousands of species of mites and ticks from the subclass Acari
Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods) of two large orders, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari. However, most recent genetic analyses do not recover the two as ea ...
. Australia also has at least 150 species of pseudoscorpion
Pseudoscorpions, also known as false scorpions or book scorpions, are small, scorpion-like arachnids belonging to the order Pseudoscorpiones, also known as Pseudoscorpionida or Chelonethida.
Pseudoscorpions are generally beneficial to humans bec ...
with an estimated 550 more waiting to be described, and at least 17 scorpion genera with 120 species.
In the Annelida
The annelids (), also known as the segmented worms, are animals that comprise the phylum Annelida (; ). The phylum contains over 22,000 extant species, including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to variou ...
(sub)class Oligochaeta
Oligochaeta () is a subclass of soft-bodied animals in the phylum Annelida, which is made up of many types of aquatic and terrestrial worms, including all of the various earthworms. Specifically, oligochaetes comprise the terrestrial megadril ...
there are many families of aquatic worms, and for native terrestrial worm
Worms are many different distantly related bilateria, bilateral animals that typically have a long cylindrical tube-like body, no limb (anatomy), limbs, and usually no eyes.
Worms vary in size from microscopic to over in length for marine ...
s: the Enchytraeidae
Enchytraeidae is a family of microdrile oligochaeta, oligochaetes. They resemble small earthworms and include both terrestrial species known as potworms that live in highly organic Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial environments, as well as some ...
(pot worms) and the "true" earthworms in families Acanthodrilidae, Octochaetidae and Megascolecidae. The latter includes the world's largest earthworm, the giant Gippsland earthworm, found only in Gippsland
Gippsland () is a rural region in the southeastern part of Victoria, Australia, mostly comprising the coastal plains south of the Victorian Alps (the southernmost section of the Great Dividing Range). It covers an elongated area of east of th ...
, Victoria. On average they reach 80 cm in length, but specimens up to 3.7 m in length have been found.
The large family Parastacidae includes 124 species of Australian freshwater crayfish. These include the world's smallest crayfish, the swamp crayfish, which does not exceed 30 mm in length, and the world's largest crayfish, the Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish,[Egerton, p. 575.] measuring up to 76 cm long and weighing 4.5 kg. The crayfish genus '' Cherax'' includes the common yabby,[ in addition to the farmed species marron and Queensland red claw. Species from the genus '' Engaeus'', commonly known as the land crayfish, are also found in Australia. ''Engaeus'' species are not entirely aquatic, because they spend most of their lives living in burrows. Australia has seven species of freshwater crab from the genus '' Austrothelphusa''. These crabs live burrowed into the banks of waterways and can plug their burrows, surviving through several years of drought. The extremely primitive freshwater mountain shrimp, found only in Tasmania, are a unique group, resembling species found in the fossil record from 200 MYA.
A huge variety of marine invertebrates are found in Australian waters, with the ]Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
an important source of this diversity. Families include the Porifera
Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a Basal (phylogenetics) , basal clade and a sister taxon of the Eumetazoa , diploblasts. They are sessility (motility) , sessile ...
or sea sponges, the Cnidaria
Cnidaria ( ) is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water, freshwater and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroid (zoology), hydroids, ...
(includes the jellyfish
Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...
, coral
Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...
s and sea anemone
Sea anemones ( ) are a group of predation, predatory marine invertebrates constituting the order (biology), order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the ''Anemone'', a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemone ...
s, comb jellies
Ctenophora (; : ctenophore ) is a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming (commonly referred to as "combs"), and they are ...
), the Echinoderm
An echinoderm () is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". While bilaterally symmetrical as ...
ata (includes the sea urchin
Sea urchins or urchins () are echinoderms in the class (biology), class Echinoidea. About 950 species live on the seabed, inhabiting all oceans and depth zones from the intertidal zone to deep seas of . They typically have a globular body cove ...
s, sea star
Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...
s, brittle star
Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomot ...
s, sea cucumber
Sea cucumbers are echinoderms from the class (biology), class Holothuroidea ( ). They are benthic marine animals found on the sea floor worldwide, and the number of known holothuroid species worldwide is about 1,786, with the greatest number be ...
s, the lamp shells) and the Mollusca (includes snail
A snail is a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gas ...
s, slug
Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less Terrestrial mollusc, terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced ...
s, limpet
Limpets are a group of aquatic snails with a conical gastropod shell, shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. This general category of conical shell is known as "patelliform" (dish-shaped). Existing within the class Gastropoda, ...
s, squid
A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...
, octopus
An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...
, cockles, oyster
Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...
s, clam
Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...
s, and chiton
Chitons () are marine molluscs of varying size in the class Polyplacophora ( ), formerly known as Amphineura. About 940 extant and 430 fossil species are recognized.
They are also sometimes known as sea cradles or coat-of-mail shells or suck ...
s). Venomous invertebrates include the box jellyfish
Box jellyfish (class Cubozoa) are cnidarian invertebrates distinguished by their box-like (i.e., cube-shaped) body. Some species of box jellyfish produce potent venom delivered by contact with their tentacles. Stings from some species, including ' ...
, the blue-ringed octopus
Blue-ringed octopuses, comprising the genus ''Hapalochlaena'', are four extremely venomous species of octopus that are found in tide pools and coral reefs in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, from Japan to Australia. They can be identified by thei ...
,[Egerton, pp. 502, 596.] and ten species of cone snail
Cone snails, or cones, are highly venomous sea snails that constitute the family Conidae. ''Conidae'' is a taxonomic family (previously subfamily) of predatory marine gastropod molluscs in the superfamily Conoidea.
The 2014 classification of ...
, which can cause respiratory failure and death in humans.[ The ]crown-of-thorns starfish
The crown-of-thorns starfish (frequently abbreviated to COTS), ''Acanthaster planci'', is a large starfish that preys upon hard, or stony, coral polyps (Scleractinia). The crown-of-thorns starfish receives its name from venomous thornlike spines ...
usually inhabits the reef at low densities. However, under conditions that are not yet well understood, they can reproduce to reach an unsustainable population density when coral is devoured at a rate faster than it can regenerate. This presents a serious reef management issue. Other problematic marine invertebrates include the native species purple sea urchin and the white urchin, which have been able to take over marine habitats and form urchin barrens due to the over harvesting of their natural predators which include abalone
Abalone ( or ; via Spanish , from Rumsen language, Rumsen ''aulón'') is a common name for any small to very large marine life, marine gastropod mollusc in the family (biology), family Haliotidae, which once contained six genera but now cont ...
and rock lobster
"Rock Lobster" is a song by American band the B-52's, written by their singer Fred Schneider and guitarist Ricky Wilson. It was twice recorded and released as a single, first by DB Records as their debut release in April 1978, and again the ...
. Introduced invertebrate pests include the Asian mussel, New Zealand green-lipped mussel
''Perna canaliculus'', the New Zealand green-lipped mussel, also known as the New Zealand mussel, the greenshell mussel, ''kuku'', and ''kutai'', is a bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae (the true mussels). ''P. canaliculus'' has economic im ...
, black-striped mussel and the northern Pacific seastar, all of which displace native shellfish.
There are many unique marine crustaceans in Australian waters. The best-known class, to which all the edible species of crustacean belong, is Malacostraca
Malacostraca is the second largest of the six classes of pancrustaceans behind insects, containing about 40,000 living species, divided among 16 orders. Its members, the malacostracans, display a great diversity of body forms and include crab ...
. The warm waters of northern Australia are home to many species of decapod
The Decapoda or decapods, from Ancient Greek δεκάς (''dekás''), meaning "ten", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a large order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, and includes crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, and p ...
crustaceans, including crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...
s, false crabs, hermit crab
Hermit crabs are anomuran Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the superfamily (taxonomy), superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit c ...
s, lobsters
Lobsters are malacostracans decapod crustaceans of the family Nephropidae or its synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, in ...
, shrimps, and prawns
Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (members of the order of decapods), some of which are edible.
The term ''prawn''Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature's most ...
. The peracarids, including the amphipods
Amphipoda () is an order (biology), order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods () range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 10,700 amphip ...
and isopods
Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...
, are more diverse in the colder waters of southern Australia. Less-well-known marine groups include the classes Remipedia
Remipedia is a class of blind crustaceans, closely related to hexapods, found in coastal aquifers which contain saline groundwater, with populations identified in almost every ocean basin so far explored, including in Australia, the Caribbean Se ...
, Cephalocarida
The Cephalocarida, from Ancient Greek κεφαλή (''kephalḗ''), meaning "head", and καρίς (''karís''), meaning "shrimp", are a class in the subphylum Crustacea comprising only 12 species. Both the nauplii and the adults are benthic. ...
, Branchiopoda
Branchiopoda, from Ancient Greek βράγχια (''bránkhia''), meaning "gill", and πούς (''poús''), meaning "foot", is a class (biology), class of crustaceans. It comprises Anostraca, fairy shrimp, clam shrimp, Diplostraca (or Cladocera), ...
, Maxillopoda (which includes the barnacle
Barnacles are arthropods of the subclass (taxonomy), subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacean, Crustacea. They are related to crabs and lobsters, with similar Nauplius (larva), nauplius larvae. Barnacles are exclusively marine invertebra ...
s, copepod
Copepods (; meaning 'oar-feet') are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (living in the water column), some are benthos, benthic (living on the sedimen ...
s and fish lice), and the Ostracod
Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a Class (biology), class of the crustacean, Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 33,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant taxon, extant) have been identified,Brandão, S.N.; Antoni ...
a. Notable species include the Tasmanian giant crab
The Tasmanian giant crab (''Pseudocarcinus gigas''), also known as the Tasmanian king crab, giant deepwater crab, giant southern crab, queen crab, or bullcrab, is a very large species of crab that resides on rocky and muddy bottoms in the oceans ...
, the second largest crab species in the world, found in deep water, and weighing up to 13 kg, and the Australian spiny lobsters, such as the western rock lobster, which are distinct from other lobster
Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...
species as they do not have claws.
Invasive species
Introduction of exotic fauna in Australia by design, accident and natural processes has led to a considerable number of invasive, feral
A feral (; ) animal or plant is one that lives in the wild but is descended from domesticated individuals. As with an introduced species, the introduction of feral animals or plants to non-native regions may disrupt ecosystems and has, in som ...
and pest species which have flourished and now impact the environment adversely. Introduced organisms affect the environment in a number of ways. Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...
s render land economically useless by eating everything. Red fox
The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...
es affect local endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
fauna by predation
Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation ...
while the cane toad
The cane toad (''Rhinella marina''), also known as the giant neotropical toad or marine toad, is a large, Terrestrial animal, terrestrial true toad native to South America, South and mainland Central America, but which has been Introduced spe ...
poisons the predators by being eaten. Some water flea
The Diplostraca or Cladocera, commonly known as water fleas, is a superorder of small, mostly freshwater crustaceans, most of which feed on microscopic chunks of organic matter, though some forms are predatory.
Over 1000 species have been recog ...
s may have been introduced to Australia by humans or birds. Other invasive species include birds ( Indian mynah), fish (common carp
The common carp (''Cyprinus carpio''), also known as European carp, Eurasian carp, or simply carp, is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia.Fishbase''Cyprinus carpio'' Linnaeus, 1758/ref>Ark ...
), insects (red imported fire ant
''Solenopsis invicta'', the fire ant, or red imported fire ant (RIFA), is a species of ant native to South America. A member of the genus ''Fire ant, Solenopsis'' in the subfamily Myrmicinae, it was Species description, described by Swiss ento ...
), mollusc
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...
s ( Asian mussel). The problem is compounded by invasive exotic flora
Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...
as well as introduced diseases, fungi and parasites. An example of this is Blue Green Algae, which is spreading through many bodies of water in rural Victoria, such as the Gippsland Lakes.
Costly, laborious and time-consuming efforts at control of these species has met with little success and this continues to be a major problem area in the conservation of Australia's biodiversity.
Many of the introduced species are not regulated through wildlife services and can be regularly hunted year round. Some states even fund hunting initiatives though the efficacy of these programs are disputed.
According to a 2023 report co-authored by biologist Tim Low, invasive species are the leading cause of native Australian animal extinctions since the 1960s.
Human impact and conservation
For at least 40,000 years, Australia's fauna played an integral role in the traditional lifestyles of Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...
, who relied upon many species as a source of food and skins. Vertebrates commonly harvested included macropods, possums, seals, fish and the short-tailed shearwater
The short-tailed shearwater or slender-billed shearwater (''Ardenna tenuirostris''; formerly ''Puffinus tenuirostris''), also called yolla or moonbird, and commonly known as the muttonbird in Australia, is the most abundant seabird species in A ...
, most commonly known as the muttonbird. Invertebrates used as food included insects such as the bogong moth
The bogong moth (''Agrotis infusa'') is a temperate species of Nocturnal, night-flying moth, notable for its biannual long-distance seasonal Lepidoptera migration, migrations towards and from the Australian Alps, similar to the diurnal monarch ...
and larvae collectively called witchetty grub
The witchetty grub (also spelled witchety grub or witjuti grub) is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths. In particular, it applies to the larvae of the Cossidae, cossid moth ''Endoxyla leucomochla'' ...
s and molluscs. The use of fire-stick farming
Fire-stick farming, also known as cultural burning and cool burning, is the practice of Aboriginal Australians regularly using fire to burn vegetation, which has been practised for thousands of years. There are a number of purposes for doing this ...
, in which large swathes of bushland were burnt to facilitate hunting, modified both flora and fauna – and are thought to have contributed to the extinction of large herbivores with a specialised diet, such as the flightless birds from the genus ''Genyornis
''Genyornis newtoni'' is an extinct species of large, flightless bird that lived in Australia during the Pleistocene Epoch until around 50,000 years ago. Over two metres in height, they were likely herbivorous. Many other species of Austral ...
''. The role of hunting and landscape modification by aboriginal people in the extinction of the Australian megafauna
The term Australian megafauna refers to the megafauna in Australia (continent), Australia during the Pleistocene, Pleistocene Epoch. Most of these species became extinct during the latter half of the Pleistocene, as part of the broader global L ...
is debated,[Thomson, J.M. et al. 1987. Human Exploitation of and Introductions to the Australian Fauna. In D.W. Walton Ed. ''Fauna of Australia'', Volume 1A. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.] but increasingly favours the idea humans were responsible for megafaunal extinction.
Despite the major impact of Aboriginals on native species populations, this is considered to be less significant than that of the European settlers, whose impact on the landscape has been on a relatively large scale. Since European settlement, direct exploitation of native fauna, habitat destruction and the introduction of exotic predators and competitive herbivores has led to the extinction of some 27 mammal, 23 bird and 4 frog species. Much of Australia's fauna is protected by legislation. The federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
The ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and cult ...
was created to meet Australia's obligations as a signatory to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), known informally as the Biodiversity Convention, is a multilateral treaty. The Convention has three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity (or biodiversity); the sustainable use of its ...
. This act protects all native fauna and provides for the identification and protection of threatened species
A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...
. In each state and territory, there is statutory listing of threatened species. At present, 380 animal species are classified as either endangered or threatened under the EPBC Act, and other species are protected under state and territory legislation. More broadly, a complete cataloguing of all the species within Australia has been undertaken, a key step in the conservation of Australian fauna and biodiversity. In 1973, the federal government established the Australian Biological Resources Study
Australian Biological Resources Study (ABRS) is a project undertaken by the Parks Australia Division of Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Background
ABRS was founded in 1973 from the recommendations ...
(ABRS), which coordinates research in the taxonomy, identification, classification and distribution of flora and fauna. The ABRS maintains free online databases cataloguing much of the described Australian flora and fauna. Impacts such as the illegal setting of traps in rivers affect animals such as the Australian platypus, along with lack of awareness each year an average of 2–5 Australians lose their lives to what is presumed a safe creature. The key is understanding of Australia's diverse wildlife and fauna; what seems safe is often deadly.
The Australian Wildlife Conservancy is the largest private owner of land for conservation in the country which is dedicated to protecting endangered species across 4.8 million hectares of land in the most popular regions such as the Kimberley, Cape York, Lake Eyre and the Top End. This not-for-profit organisation is working hard to avoid extinction of the endangered native species in various wildlife sanctuaries.
Australia is a member of the International Whaling Commission
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is a specialised regional fishery management organisation, established under the terms of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to "provide for the proper conservation ...
and is strongly opposed to commercial whaling — all cetacean species are protected in Australian waters. Australia is also a signatory to the CITES
CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...
agreement and prohibits the export of endangered species. Protected areas
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewoo ...
have been created in every state and territory to protect and preserve the country's unique ecosystems. These protected areas include national parks and other reserves, as well as 64 wetlands registered under the Ramsar Convention
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar site, Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on We ...
and 16 World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
s. , 10.8% (774,619.51 km2) of the total land area of Australia is within protected areas. Protected marine zones have been created in many areas to preserve marine biodiversity; , these areas cover about 7% (646,000 km2) of Australia's marine jurisdiction. The Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
is managed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority under specific federal and state legislation. Some of Australia's fisheries are already overexploited
Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to ...
, and quotas have been set for the sustainable harvest of many marine species.
The ''State of the Environment Report, 2001'', prepared by independent researchers for the federal government, concluded that the condition of the environment and environmental management in Australia had worsened since the previous report in 1996. Of particular relevance to wildlife conservation, the report indicated that many processes — such as salinity
Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...
, changing hydrological conditions, land clearing, fragmentation of ecosystems, poor management of the coastal environment, and invasive species
An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...
— pose major problems for protecting Australia's biodiversity.[Australian State of the Environment Committee. 2001]
''Australia State of the Environment 2001''
, Independent Report to the Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and Heritage. CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Heritage
See also
* List of mammals of Australia
A total of 386 species of mammals have been recorded in Australia and surrounding continental waters: 364 indigenous and 22 introduced. The list includes 2 monotremes, 154 marsupials, 83 bats, 69 rodents (5 introduced), 10 pinnipeds, 2 terr ...
** List of monotremes and marsupials of Australia
Mammals are divided into two subclasses based on reproductive techniques: egg laying mammals (the monotremes), and live birth mammals. The second subclass is divided into two infraclasses: pouched mammals (the marsupials) and placental mammals.
...
** List of bats of Australia
** List of rodents of Australia
This is a list of rodents of Australia. Australia has a large number of indigenous rodents, all from the family Muridae. The "Old endemics" group are member of tribe Hydromyini, which reached Australasia between 11 – 9 million years ago from As ...
** List of placental mammals introduced to Australia
** List of marine mammals of Australia
* List of birds of Australia
** List of birds of Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica
** Birds of Australia#Regional lists
* List of ants of Australia
* List of butterflies of Australia
* List of moths of Australia
* List of stick insects and mantids of Australia
* List of Dermapterans of Australia
* List of common spider species of Australia
* List of Australia-New Guinea species extinct in the Holocene
* List of introduced fish in Australia
* Threatened fauna of Australia
* List of Australia-New Guinea species extinct in the Holocene
* List of marine animals of Australia (temperate waters)
* Environmental issues in Australia
Environmental issues in Australia describes a number of environmental issues which affect the environment of Australia and are the primary concern of the environmental movement in Australia.
There are a range of such issues, some of the relati ...
Notes
References
* Berra, T. M. 1998. ''A Natural History of Australia''. Academic Press
* Egerton, L. ed. 2005. ''Encyclopedia of Australian wildlife''. Reader's Digest
* Kuiter, R. H. 2000. ''Coastal fishes of south-eastern Australia''. Gary Allen
* McKay, G. M. et al. 1989
Biogeography and Phylogeny of Eutheria
In ''Fauna of Australia'' (D. W. Walton and B. J. Richardson, eds.). Mammalia, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 1B:1–1227.
* Menkhorst, P. W.; Knight, F. 2004. ''A field guide to the mammals of Australia''. Oxford University Press
* Prokop, F. B. 2006. ''Australian fish guide''. Australian Fishing Network.
* Strahan, R. ed. 1983. ''The Australian Museum Complete Book of Australian Mammals''. Angus & Robertson
* Walton, D. W. Ed. 1987. ''Fauna of Australia'', Volume 1A. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.
* Wells, A. Ed. 2005
Australian Faunal Directory], Department of Environment and Heritage
* Wilson, S.; Swan, G. 2017. ''A complete guide to reptiles of Australia, 5th Edition''. Reed New Holland
External links
Australian Biological Resources Study
Australian Insect Common names
Australian Museum
Australia's natural history museum
* ttp://www.reptile-database.org/ The Reptile Database
University of Melbourne Australian Venom Research Unit
, descriptions and images of venomous species
full contents of Mammalia and some of Amphibia & Reptilia available in .pdf format
30+ Native Australian Animals – Facts, Pics & Where To Find Them
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