Can You Identify All of These Aussie Animals on a Walkabout?

Emus are the world’s second largest birds after ostriches. Like ostriches, cassowary, rhea and kiwi, emus are also flightless.

Red kangaroos are one of the four kangaroo species. They can grow to heights of over 6 and a half feet and leap nearly 10 feet in the air!

Tasmanian Devils are the largest carnivorous marsupials in the world. They eat insects, fish, birds and snakes, as well as carrion (decaying animal flesh).

In the Dharug Australian Aborigine language, the word “koala” means “no water” or “no drink.” Koalas don’t drink much water as they get most of the water they need from the leaves they eat.

A blobfish feeds by sucking small crustaceans into its mouth as it moves along the ocean floor. Active hunting would be difficult for the blobfish as it has no bones, no teeth and very low muscle mass.

The cells in a platypus’s bill are sensitive to the electric fields generated by other living things. It uses this sensitivity as a means of electrolocation and relies on it when hunting.

The Quokka is one of the smallest wallabies in Australia. It has a very sweet smile on its face and some VERY sharp claws on its feet.

Echidnas are one of the few mammal species to lay eggs. The eggs hatch after just 10 days. A baby echidna is known as a puggle.

Often referred to as wild dogs, dingoes are a type of canine, but they are not dogs. Dingoes can turn their heads almost 180 degrees in each direction!

The Tasmanian Tiger was once regarded as the largest carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It was, however, declared extinct in 1936. It is also called the Tasmanian Wolf.

Bilbies are also called “rabbit-bandicoots.” They are desert-dwelling marsupial omnivores and are noted for having an extremely short gestation period – just 12 to 14 days.

The red-bellied black snake is extremely venomous and belongs to the same family as cobras. Although dangerous, it does not readily bite, but will ward off danger by raising it upper body off the ground, flattening its head and hissing.

The female cassowary is known to abandon her eggs shortly after laying them. The father then takes on the job of incubating the eggs for 50 days, then raising the young once they’ve hatched.

Despite appearing chubby, wombats can run up to 25 miles per hour. By comparison, Usain Bolt was clocked going slightly faster – at just under 28 miles per hour!

During mating season, the male blue-tongued lizard will actively go out looking for a mate. Otherwise, these animals prefer to live alone for most of the year. Blue-tongued lizards are often kept as house pets.

Found throughout much of Australia, black swans can grow to be almost 5 feet tall. They have a wing span of up to 6 and a half feet.

Due to its habit of running on its hind legs when it is scared, the frilled lizard is often called the bicycle lizard. The “frill” is a loose flap of skin the lizard opens up around its head when it feels threatened.

This spiky lizard is sometimes called a “Thorny Dragon” or a “Mountain Devil." Thorny devils can change color from being yellow or red in warm weather to darker shades in cold weather or when they are alarmed.

Sugar Gliders are nocturnal marsupials. They are arboreal (live in trees) and are omnivores. They can glide through the air in the same way a flying squirrel does.

Box jellyfish have 24 eyes in six groups of four – all facing inwards. The venom of the box jellyfish is considered to be among the deadliest in the world.

These venomous spiders tend to reside in or close to human residences. It is believed they do this as a way to get both warmth and shelter. They make very sticky webs and feed on a diet of mostly small insects.

The male antechinus in noted for mating to the point of death. As a result, they do not live past their first mating season. Also, many female Antechinus do not survive past having their first litter.

Also called Lady Gouldian finch and rainbow finch, these birds have black, green, red and yellow markings. The males have purple chests and the females have chests of light-mauve.

These herbivores can grow up to 6 feet long – head to tail. When threatened, wallabies use their legs to deliver powerful blows to their opponents.

Possums are a type of marsupial found in Australia, New Guinea, Sulawesi and New Zealand. Opossums, on the other hand, are also marsupials but are found in the Americas.

A numbat is one type of marsupial in which the female does not have a pouch. Instead, the newly-born numbat babies only have their mother’s long hair for protection.

This marsupial is also called “tiger quoll” and “tiger cat.” It was one of the first animals that Europeans encountered upon their arrival in Australia.

Dugong are closely related to manatees as is shown in both their behavior and appearance. Not so obvious, however, is the fact that both the dugong and manatee are related to the elephant.

Australian snapping turtle are a type of large side-necked turtle. They pull their head into their shells by turning it to the side instead of simply pulling it straight inwards as most other turtles do.

Marsupial moles live in the deserts of Australia. They are covered in golden fur and are both earless and blind. They spend most of their time underground.

Kookaburras are a type of kingfisher birds. One type, the popular laughing kookaburra, makes a sound resembling the echo of human laughter.

The lyrebird can mimic both natural and artificial sounds in its surroundings, including other birds, chainsaws and car alarms. Male lyrebirds have a huge tail which is fanned out like a peacock’s during courtship.

Plains Wanderers prefer running to flying and so they are easy prey for foxes to catch. That, along with loss of their habitat to farmland, has driven the plains wanderer to near extinction.

Fourteen tree kangaroo species can be found in the forests of Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Tree kangaroos are considered to be “threatened” because of hunting and loss of habitat.

The little penguin is also known as fairy penguin and little blue penguin. They are the smallest species of penguin in the world.

The brumby is not a specific breed of horse. They are wild, free-roaming descendants of thoroughbred, Arabian, draft and Clydesdale horses, among others.

Like other sea turtles, the flatback is unable to pull its head into its shell. They are omnivores and can reach weights of up to 200 pounds.

The goanna are a type of monitor lizard (large lizard). Their name comes from the fact that early European settlers thought they looked like iguanas.

Scientifically identified in 2014, the Australian humpback dolphin is one of only four species of humpback dolphins in the world. They live in groups of up to 31 members but on average, the Australian humpback dolphin group has only two or three members.

Red-eyed tree frogs are nocturnal and are related to the more often seen green tree frog. Although they breed in ground pools, the red-eyed tree frogs spend most of the rest of their lives among foliage in trees.

Bandicoots are omnivorous marsupials. They are often thought to be rodents because they look so much like large rats. Bandicoots are, in fact, related to rabbits.

Flying foxes are actually large bats that are different from smaller bats in one very distinct way – they do not use echolocation to catch prey. Instead, they use their well-developed senses of sight and smell.

The Australian Water Buffalo are not native to the country but were first brought there from Indonesia in the 1800s. They have since become wild in some parts of northern Australia.

Camel are not native to Australia – the first camel was brought there in 1840. Australia is now reported to have the largest wild camel herd in the world.

The female saltwater crocodile can have 40 to 90 eggs in her nest at once. Only about 1 percent of all saltwater crocodile hatchlings will make it to adulthood.

The sport of fox hunting was the reason behind the introduction of foxes to Australia in 1855. Since then, they have contributed to the extinction of many native Australian animals.

The cockatoo is actually a type of parrot and it can be trained to say a few words. While most cockatoos are white, they also come in pink or black.

All clownfish start out as male. Within a group of clownfish, the most dominant male will morph into a female. If she dies, the next largest male becomes female – all others remain as male.

The first set of Myna birds were brought to Australia in 1863 as a means of pest control. Since then, however, they have gone on to be classified as invasive pests due to their negative effects on several native species, including the kookaburra, cockatoo and sugar glider.

The venom of the stone fish ranks among the deadliest of any fish in the world. The stone fish has a mottled appearance which helps to hide the venomous spines along its back.