A Joey and His Mother

Red Kangaroo

Not all red kangaroos are red!!! Red kangaroos are colored by the place that they are staying at. Males are usually pale to brick red in the eastern part of their range, and females are bluish gray. In other words, both males and females may be reddish or brown.

Red kangaroos weigh from 18kg to 90kg. Usually, males are larger than females, weighing about 65kg. Females rarely weigh above 30kg.

Red kangaroo's heights ranges from 74-140cm to 2m. The tail of a red kangaroo can weich from 64cm to 1m.

Red kangaroos have hairless muzzles. There is a blakc and white mark on each side of their muzzles and a wide white stripe from the corner of their mouths to the basse of their ears.

The body position of red kangaroos is upright, except when it is grazing, or eating grass.

Red kangaroo's fur is velvety to the touch.

The front legs of a red kangaroo are small and short with many claws. The hind feet are long and make the kangaroo able to travel as fast 40mph.

A Koala and Her Baby

Koala

Usually, koalas are ash gray with a white chest. The males are bigger than the females. Koalas have large hands and strong legs to help them climb trees. Bushy ears, fluffy and thick fur, and a big black nose give koalas their "cuddly" appearances. Koalas have very short tails, which doesn't help them to climb trees at all.

A Laughing Kookaburra

Laughing Kookaburra

Kookaburras are the largest type of kingfisher. The laughing kookaburra has a very large head with a dark eye streak and a short, stout body. It is mainly brown with black markings on its head, a creamy white underbelly and head, and "mottled" blue patches on their wings. They are famous for their laughing calls, usually occuring at dawn and dusk, and is actually the kookaburra "marking out" its territory.

A Sacred Kingfisher Female

A Sacred Kingfisher Male

Sacred Kingfisher

This brightly colored creature is small, with a blue or green head stripe, tail, and wings, although the female is slightly duller than the male, as shown in the two pictures above. A lot like a smaller version of the kookaburra, its call is well known and is described as a "staccato kee-kee-kee".

A Forest Kingfisher

Forest Kingfisher

Forest kingfishers look a lot like the sacred kingfisher, except that it has a white "flash" on its wings and has a brighter underbelly. Their tails are strong blue, and on the forest kingfisher's head there is a wide, black stripe that travels from its ear to its bill.

A Tasmanian Devil

A Tasmanian Devil With Its Mouth Open

Tasmanian Devil

Usually, tasmanian devils are black with a white patch around its neck. They are about the size of a little terrier dog, and is very short and "stout". Tasmanian devils weigh between 6 and 8kg. The weight of an average female is only 12 pounds. Even fully grown males barely ever weigh more than 20 pounds. Its tail is 9" to 12" long. Tasmanian Devils have an extremely large, strong head with wide jaws containing sharp teeth, pink, pointy ears, and percing dark eyes. Its darkly colored fur helps the tasmanian devil move around unseen at night, which is the time that they hunt and eat meat.

A Dingo

Two Baby Dingoes

Dingo

Dingos are found all over Australia, except for Tasmania. It is a strange form of the domestic dog. Dingoes are not pack animals. They usually hunt on their own, in a pair, or in a family group, although there have been a few sightings of one family group helping another family group. Dingoes have clearly marked territories, although they sometimes share some of their space with other dingoes.

A Hairy Nosed Wombat

Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat

Wombats' heads and bodies are 80 to 100cm long and its tail is 3 to 5cm long. Females are a bit heavier than males. Its strange name, Nothern Hairy Nosed Wombat, comes from its muzzle, which ias covered all over with short hairs. Wombats are strong and keavily built, with short but powerful legs and hard, strong claws that are used to dig burrows ar to search for plants and roots to feast on. Its fur is soft, silky, and brown with gray, fawn, and black. Northern hairy nosed wombats have broad heads and black patches around their eyes. Their ears are long and a bit pointed with bits of white hair on the edges.

A Salt Water Crocodile

Salt Water Crocodile

Salt water crocodiles are the largest reptiles in the world. They have broad snouts with cone shaped teeth. Its average length is 4m, but males that are 6 to 7ft have been seen. Salt water crocodiles have rows of hard, bony scales on their neck and back. Their coloring is mainly grayish brown with yellow and brown sides. The crocodile's legs are webbed to help them swim well. Their clear eyelids help them see when they are swimming underwater. People think that they can live for up to 70 to 100 years.

A Bilby

Bilby

Bilbies are a rabbit sized marsupial with large ears that not only give them good hearing, but also allow the bilby to lose heat in their body. Their fur is soft grey with a bluish touch. It has a long pointed snout and a large black and white tail with a white brush tip makes this a unusual looking animal. Strong claws enables this marsupial to burrow quickly through sandy soil. The bilby's pouch faces backwards. They range from 30 to 60cm in length with, approximately, a 20cm tail. The female is smaller than the male, and this species stays by itself, instead of in a group.

A Emu

Emu

Emus are covered with long, thick, floppy feathers that are dark brown to grey-brown. Their heads though have shorter "downing" feathers, a pointy beak, large bright looking eyes, and, usually, a blue throat. Emus have exceedingly long, bare legs, enabling them to run fast, with three toed feet. They are 1.5 to 2 meters tall, and weigh up to 45kg. Although the female is usually larger than the male, both of them look quite similar.

A Spotted Tailed Quoll

Spotted Tailed Quoll

Quolls are about the size of cats with the spotted tailed quoll being the largest quoll. The spotted tailed quolls fur ranges from reddish brown to orange brown to dark chocolate brown to almost black, with white spots. Its underbelly is often cream colored to white. This type of quoll is the only one in which the pattern of white spots on its body is continued onto the tail. The pattern is different on each animal. Its face has a wet pink nose, little pointy ears, a thick snout and a mouth that can open very wide to show lots of sharp teeth. Males measure up to 130 cm long and weigh 4kg. Females are much smaller than males. The long tail is not prehensile, which means it is not used for balance or it is not used for something like a fifth leg or arm in climbing.

A Platypus

Platypus

The platypus has a bill that looks like a duck's bill, but is actually a very long snout covered with soft, wet, leathery skin and sensitive nerve endings. The body of the platypus is 30 to 45cm (12 to 18in) long and its flattened tail measures 10 to 15cm (4 to 6in) in length. Its feet are webbed. The body and tail are covered with a thick, soft, woolly layer of fur, from which long, flat hairs stick out. The platypus has three layers of fur:

1. An inside layer to trap air and keep the platypus warm

2. A middle layer which works like a wet suit

3. An outer layer to feel if it is close to objects.

A platypus grows to a maximum weight of 1 to 2.4kg (2.2 to 5.3lb). The platypus is known to live for at least 12 years in the wild.

A Dugong

A Calf With Its Mother

Dugong

Dugong may reach 3m in length and weigh almost 500kgs. They have a thick layer of fat, or blubber, that gives them a round posture, small paddle-like flippers positioned far forward on the body, and a broad, flattened, powerful tail that looks like the tail of whale. The brown skin of a dugong appears smooth, but if you look really close, the view shows a rough surface covered in pits from which short, thick hairs grow. Dugongs have 2 nostrils near the top of their heads on a "fleshy, meaty lip", which can curl up to make it easier to breath at the surface.

A Leadbeater's Possum

Leadbeater's Possum

The length of leadbeater's possum's body is about 16-18cm and, with its club-shaped tail being about the same length, this animal is about 30-40cm long from its nose to its tailtip. An adult leadbeater's possum weighs between 100-170 grams(usually around 120-130g),but their weight changes depending on the season. Soft, thick fur covers the body and, like most possums, the leadbeater's coloring varies. Although its underside is usually pale grey, the leadbeater's possum's upper and side fur can range from grey to brown.