• Question: What animal is endemic the Australia and its surrounding islands? (Hint: It's a bird, like an ostrich)

    Asked by to James, Natalie, Shaylon on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: James Bell

      James Bell answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Emu!

      Australia and New Zealand have lots of endemic animals though, particularly New Zealand which has been cut off from other land masses for a very long time. Before Europeans settled there and introduced animals like goats and rats, there were almost no mammals at all and the whole place was dominated by the majestic kakapo (a big green flightless parrot, and possibly my favourite bird) and other flightless birds

      Endemism occurs when animals are separated by mountains, oceans, deserts etc. and they gradually respond to the different environments and become separate species. If a species is only found in a single place, it is said to be endemic to that area. Endemic species are amongst the most at risk groups for extinction because they are often very specialised to their habitats

    • Photo: Natalie Pilakouta

      Natalie Pilakouta answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      James beat me to it!

      Just to clarify though, even though New Zealand doesn’t have that many (native) mammals, Australia has lots! Hint: marsupials!

      In fact more than 80% of Australian mammals are endemic. There are so many cool (and sometimes weird-looking!) animals in Australia, like koalas, wombats, numbats, bandicoots, possums, marsupial moles, sugar glider (super-cute), wallabies and of course kangaroos!

    • Photo: Shaylon Stolk

      Shaylon Stolk answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      There are some other very cool birds in Australia and New Zealand. My personal favourite is the kakapoo, which is a flightless, nocturnal parrot!
      http://www.arkive.org/kakapo/strigops-habroptila/video-00.html

Comments