Why is Australia unique?
Due to the early land separation of Australia it is a land like no other with about a million different native species. More than 80 per cent of the country’s flowering plants, mammals, reptiles and frogs are unique to Australia, along with most of the fish and almost half of the birds. More than 750 species of birds have been recorded in Australia, 350 of which are found nowhere else in the world. Among them are the kookaburra, the rainbow lorikeet and the fairy penguin. About 80 per cent of marine species found in southern Australian waters occur nowhere else in the world. Australia has more than 140 species of marsupials, including koalas, wombats and the Tasmanian devil, now found only in the Tasmanian wilderness. Australia hosts another unique animal group, the monotremes—egg-laying mammals, often referred to as ‘living fossils’. The most distinctive is the platypus, a river-dwelling animal with a duck-like bill, a furry body and webbed feet. In addition the country has the widest
