Australia's Top 5 Mammals

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Australia's top 5 strange, weird and outright whacky mammals.
5. Kanagroo
A kangaroo is an Australian marsupial. It belongs to the genus Macropus. The common name 'kangaroo' is used for the four large species, and there are another 50 species of smaller macropods. The kangaroos are common in Australia and can also be found in New Guinea.

4. Koala
Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) are herbivore marsupials that live in the eucalyptus forests of eastern Australia. They are the only living species in the family Phascolarctidae. Koalas are often called koala bears, because a koala looks somewhat like a small bear or teddy bear. However, it is not a bear, it is quite a different type of animal.

3. Wombat
A wombat is a marsupial in the family Vombatidae. It lives in the Australian eucalyptus forests. There are two genera with three living wombat species; the Common Wombat and the Hairy-nosed Wombats.It is a medium-sized animal that makes a burrow by digging holes in the ground. Wombats are usually around a metre (40 in) long when they are fully grown. It is a kind of animal known as a marsupial because it has a pouch on its belly that holds its young, although it faces back instead of forward like most marsupials. Having the pouch face backwards prevents dirt from building up in the pouch and hitting the offspring in the face when digging. When its young are born they spend some time growing in their mother's pouch before going into the world. Wombats are herbivores. They eat plants, roots, and grasses. They are nocturnal which means they sleep in the day and come out at night. Some wombats have thick brown fur and very small ears. They can weigh from 20 to 35 kilograms (45 to 80 lb). They can live up to 7 years.
Wombats are commonly known and recognised by their waste products. They are the only known mammals that excrete feces in cubic shape. This lets people easily know when wombat habitats are nearby. It also tells simply what the wombat may have eaten by examining the feces thoroughly.

2. Echidna
Echidna, the spiny anteater, is a monotreme that lives in Australia and in New Guinea. They are the living members of the family Tachyglossidae.

Echnidas have a long, tube-like mouth with a sticky tongue, and they are also covered in spines. They have mammary glands, and lay eggs.

The echidna has a method of protecting itself. With its long, sharp claws, they quickly dig a hole until only their spines are showing when they are hiding in the hole. The predator will not be able to get it without injuring itself on the spines. When there is a fire, the echidna will dig down out of reach of the fire.

1. Platypus
The duck-billed platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a small mammal. It is one of only two monotremes to survive today. It lives in eastern Australia.[3] The plural of platypus is just 'platypus'.

The platypus lives in rivers and river banks. It is one of only two families of mammals which lay eggs. The other is the Echidna, which has four species. The platypus was first described in detail in the early 19th century, but it took a while before biologists in England believed what they were reading.

These mammals are called monotremes because they have a common rear opening known as the cloaca. Through this opening faeces and urine are voided (put out), and sexual activity takes place.This is a primitive ('basal') feature of tetrapods, which monotremes, birds and reptiles have today. The more 'advanced' ('derived') mammals have the system where the rear has two openings.