The dingo was introduced by Austronesian people who traded with Indigenous Australians around 3000 BCE. Australia is home to many dangerous animals including some of the most venomous snakes in the world. Among well-known Australian animals are the monotremes a host of marsupials, including the kangaroo, koala, and wombat, and birds such as the emu and the kookaburra.
Australia is also one of 17 megadiverse countries.Īustralian forests are mostly made up of evergreen species, particularly eucalyptus trees in the less arid regions wattles replace them as the dominant species in drier regions and deserts. They are now considered a major factor in the decline and extinction of many vulnerable and endangered native species. Feral cats may have been introduced in the 17th century by Dutch shipwrecks, and later in the 18th century by European settlers. Besides Antarctica, Australia is the only continent that developed without feline species. Australia has at least 755 species of reptile, more than any other country in the world. About 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic. Because of the continent's great age, extremely variable weather patterns, and long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia's biota is unique. Fungi typify that diversity-an estimated 250,000 species-of which only 5% have been described-occur in Australia. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.Īlthough most of Australia is semi-arid or desert, the continent includes a diverse range of habitats from alpine heaths to tropical rainforests. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. : 8–9 To target threats to the survival of its fauna, Australia has passed wide-ranging federal and state legislation and established numerous protected areas.Australia is a sovereign transcontinental country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Unsustainable land use still threatens the survival of many species. These figures exclude dubious taxa like the Roper River scrub robin ( Drymodes superciliaris colcloughi) and possibly extinct taxa like the Christmas Island shrew ( Crocidura trichura). : 8–9 Based on the list of Australian animals extinct in the Holocene, about 33 mammals (27 from the mainland, including the thylacine), 24 birds (three from the mainland), one reptile, and three frog species or subspecies are strongly believed to have become extinct in Australia during the Holocene epoch. Hunting, the introduction of non-native species, and land-management practices involving the modification or destruction of habitats have led to numerous extinctions.
The settlement of Australia by Indigenous Australians between 48,000 and 70,000 years ago and by Europeans from 1788, has significantly affected the fauna. The red kangaroo is the largest extant macropod and is one of Australia's heraldic animals, appearing with the emu on the coat of arms of Australia. Uniquely, Australia has more venomous than non-venomous species of snakes. Australia is home to two of the five known extant species of monotremes and has numerous venomous species, which include the platypus, spiders, scorpions, octopus, jellyfish, molluscs, stonefish, and stingrays. Consequently, the marsupials – a group of mammals that raise their young in a pouch, including the macropods, possums and dasyuromorphs – occupy many of the ecological niches placental animals occupy elsewhere in the world. A unique feature of Australia's fauna is the relative scarcity of native placental mammals.
: 4 This high level of endemism can be attributed to the continent's long geographic isolation, tectonic stability, and the effects of a unique pattern of climate change on the soil and flora over geological time. 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 to it.
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