Australian Animals | Animals for Kids | Weird Wild Animals

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G’day mate! Welcome to AUSTRALIA. You’re not going to find animals like this anywhere

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else in the world. They all live together on this continent that looks like a giant

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island. Let’s take a closer look! Here are 11 amazing Australian animals.

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These cute cuddly Aussie critters are koalas. Koalas are marsupials. Marsupials are a kind

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of mammal that are not fully developed when they are born. When baby koalas, also known

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as joeys, are born, they’re not ready to live on their own. So they live in their mother’s

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pouch for about 7 months. Newborn Koala Joeys are about the size of a jelly bean! They eventually

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grow to be about 9 kilograms (around 20 lbs). As baby joeys, they rely heavily on their

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mother for the first year of their life. Even when they leave their mother’s pouch at

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7 months, they come back to nurse. After a year, they stop nursing and eat leaves. Eucalyptus

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leaves are their favorite. Adult koalas are mostly solitary, and spend their days up in

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the trees, napping and eating. They’re nocturnal. This means they’re more active during the

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night.

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This is a dingo! It’s known as “Australia’s Wild Dog.” But they can also be found in

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Southeast Asia. Dingos are usually reddish or golden in colour, and reach 15 kilos on

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average or about 35 pounds. Not all dingos are pure dingo. They can and do breed with

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domestic dogs to form hybrids. You can recognize a dingo by its large head with pointy ears,

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narrow chest and shoulders, and its big bushy tail that helps it stay balanced. They typically

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live in family packs, but sometimes the young males go off on their own. Dingos are hunters

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and mainly eat small animals like rabbits, rodents, and lizards. But they’ll also eat

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plants! We call this kind of animal an omnivore. Omni means all, and vore means eating (like

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when you have a voracious appetite). Put those together, and you get - eating everything!

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Do you recognize this popular Australian native animal? That’s right - it’s a kangaroo!

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Like the koala, kangaroos are marsupials. Like other marsupials, baby kangaroos, called

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joeys, develop in a pouch. They are about the size of a grape when born, and they travel

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up to the pouch on their own without any assistance from their mom. When the kangaroo is large

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enough, it can leave the pouch and join the other members of its family in eating grasses.

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Like cows, kangaroos regurgitate their food, and re-chew it as part of their digestion.

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Kangaroos are the tallest marsupial, standing over 2 meters tall. They live in groups. When

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they sense danger, they alert the others by beating on the ground with their huge feet.

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They also can use their giant, strong feet to kick any opponents. But kangaroos are mostly

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known for how well they can hop away. They use their powerful back legs to jump - about

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9 meters in one leap. In this way, they can travel around 50 km per hour. It helps that

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they have such long strong tails that keep them balanced while jumping. Look at them

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go!

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This strange Australian animal is the Tasmanian Devil! These are the largest carnivorous marsupials

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in the world, reaching about ¾ of a meter long and weighing about 11 kilograms. By now,

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you know that marsupial means they have little pouches where their baby joeys finish growing

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up. They’re called the Tasmanian Devil because they live in Tasmania, a large island just

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south of the Australian mainland. They’re not really devils, but they do get pretty

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grumpy. Tasmanian Devils have sharp teeth, and have one of the most powerful bites of

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any mammal on earth. They often eat the carcasses of dead animals. Yuck! And they eat EVERYTHING!

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Even the hair and bones. Double yuck! Tasmanian Devils are nocturnal. They sleep all day in

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a burrow or cave, and come out at night to eat. They make a dramatic display if they

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are threatened - they howl, bare their teeth, and spin around in circles.

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Behold! another Australian marsupial, the wombat! They are about 1 meter long, with

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a pudgy appearance. They have squat little legs and a very short tail. They spend much

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of their time in burrows underground, digging with their teeth and claws. Like rats and

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other rodents, their long front teeth keep growing. They must constantly chew on tough

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plants to keep their teeth ground down to a normal size.

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And like other marsupials, wombats have pouches where they raise their young. But their pouch

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faces backwards! This way, dirt doesn’t get into the pouch as the wombat digs its

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tunnels. Pretty smart! Wombats are nocturnal herbivores, emerging

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from their tunnels at night to eat a variety of grasses, roots, and bark. Wombats have

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an unusual defence mechanism against their most common predators - dingos and tasmanian

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devils. They dive into a tunnel and block the opening with their backside. Their rear

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ends have tough cartilage, that makes it hard to bite. Then the wombat can reach back and

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kick with its powerful rear legs, driving the predator away.

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Wait a minute. Is that a kangaroo? No! It’s a wallaby! It sure looks a lot like a kangaroo.

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Just like the kangaroo, wallabies are marsupials. But they’re smaller. Wallabies are members

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of a family called macropodidae, which means BIG FEET! Kangaroos are also members of this

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family. So how can you tell the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby? The kangaroo

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has more height between its ankles and its knees - this lets it get more speed as it

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hops across the grasslands. Wallabies, in contrast, have more compact legs. Wallabies

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usually have brighter coats. Some have reddish markings around their shoulders. Kangaroos

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tend to be more dull in colour. Still not sure? You can really tell the difference

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by looking at their teeth. The wallaby lives mostly on leaves from the forest, so it has

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flatter teeth for crushing and grinding leaves. Kangaroos tend to live in more open areas

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without trees, and eat more grass, so they have ridged teeth that are good for cutting

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grass to eat.

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Eeeee! This might be the most adorable marsupial, the Quokka. He looks like he’s smiling!

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The quokka is also a member of the macropod family. They can hop, using their big feet.

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But they are much smaller than their relatives, the kangaroo and wallaby. They’re about

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the size of a housecat. Awww! Like kangaroos and wallabies, quokkas raise their joeys in

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a pouch. After about 8 months, the new quokka can live on its own. Quokkas are vegetarian,

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and eat a wide variety of plants, including grasses and leaves from shrubs and trees.

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Quokkas are very good at burrowing, digging tunnels where they nap and can hide from predators.

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They can also climb trees. Most quokkas are found on Rottnest Island, off the west coast

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of mainland Australia. They’re so photogenic! But don’t be fooled by their cute pictures.

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Quokkas can and DO bite. We’ll just think they’re super cute from a distance.

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This is the duck-billed platypus. The platypus has a bill and webbed feet. That might make

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you think of a duck! But the platypus is NOT a bird. It’s a mammal. What?! We’ve been

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talking about a lot of marsupials. But the platypus is a different kind of mammal, called

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a monotreme. These are mammals that lay eggs! This is very rare. In fact, there are only

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two known kinds of animals that do this. Do you know the other?{show outline of echidna}

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We’ll talk about it in a moment, it’s another Australian native! But for now, let’s

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focus on the weird and wonderful platypus. The platypus lays one or two eggs at time.

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She stays with the eggs, keeping them warm. They hatch in about 10 days. The babies are

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tiny - like a little bean. (So many of these Australian animals sure are tiny when born!)

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They stay nursing with the mother for about 3-4 months until they can swim on their own.

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Full-grown platypuses grow to about 1 and a half kilos - about 3 pounds. They hunt underwater,

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scooping up all kinds of food from the bottom. They eat insects, shellfish, and worms - and

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since they don’t have teeth, they scoop up a little gravel and use it to mash up their

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food.

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Now that’s a big bird. The emu is a VERY large flightless bird found in Australia.

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The emu is the world’s second largest bird - only the ostrich is bigger. It has long

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legs and a long neck and stands almost 2 meters tall.

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Emus are speedy - they can sprint up to 50 km/hr - and they’re the only birds with

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calf muscles. They can jump more than 2 meters straight up off the ground. Along with running

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away, emus have another unusual defense mechanism. They can rattle their stiff tail feathers!

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This scares off predators like dingos. The feathers of an emu don’t look like most

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birds. Most birds have feathers that lie very close together, held together with barbs.

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But emu feathers have barbs that are very far apart, and so the feathers don’t hook

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together. They stick out, looking more like hair. Emus can also scare off predators by

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shouting! Well, sort of. The emu has a pouch in its throat that it can inflate, and make

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deep booming, grunting, and hissing sounds. Their calls can be heard up to 2 kilometers

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away. That’ll scare off a dingo!

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Here’s another large flightless bird living in Australia - and the third largest bird

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in the world. Actually, it’s the third tallest, but the second heaviest. Like the ostrich

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and emu, the cassowary does not fly. It has tiny wings that couldn’t support its weight

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during flight. The female cassowary is about twice as big as the male. - about 60 kilos

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(130 lbs). The cassowary has long, glossy black feathers on its body, but hardly any

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feathers on their long necks that are multicoloured - red, orange, blue and purple. Yeah - that’s

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not all that’s going on. The cassowary has all sorts of interesting features. See that

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fold of skin in front? That’s called a wattle. And on the tops of their heads is a tall horn

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called a casque. This may remind you of some dinosaurs, like the parasaurolophus! Like

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other birds, the female cassowary lays eggs. Then the father takes care of them. What a

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good dad! We should say, emu dads do this too. But just because they’re good parents,

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don’t think these giant birds are pushovers. Cassowaries can defend themselves. They have

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sharp claws and a powerful kick. They just want to be left alone to graze. They mostly

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eat fruit. But they’ll also eat the occasional lizard or snake.

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The echidna is the second kind of mammal that can lay eggs. Remember the platypus is the

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other! The echidna usually lays just one egg a year. It’s about the size of a grape.

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The mother echidna holds the egg in a pouch on her belly. The egg hatches after about

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10 days. The baby echidna is called a puggle, and is very tiny. It grabs onto its mother’s

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fur, and laps up milk from special glands in her pouch. There are actually two kinds

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of echidna - the long-beaked echidna, and the short-beaked echidna.They are sometimes

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called spiny anteaters. That’s because they do eat ants and termites. But they aren’t

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really closely related to the true anteaters, which live in the Americas. The echidna is

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good at digging in the dirt to catch their food. They stick in their snout and catch

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insects on their long sticky tongue. Echidnas aren’t interested in fighting. You can tell

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just by looking at it - it doesn’t want to be bothered. Look at all those spines!

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To defend against predators, the echidna rolls up into an unwelcoming ball covered with spikes.

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Not so easy to bite now!

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Those are 11 amazing animals that live “down under” in Australia! Which animal was your

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favorite? Which Aussie critter do you think is the strangest? Let us know in the comments

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below! We want to know what you think! Now it’s time to watch more Socratica Kids

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animal videos! Pick which one you want to watch next. We guarantee you’ll love it!

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Animals are cool!

Australian Animals | Animals for Kids | Weird Wild Animals

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